By Mark F. Bonner, Advocate staff writer
The Advocate (Louisiana)
Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
Thirty more emergency calls a day might not sound like much, but paramedics at the city-parish’s Emergency Medical Services have done the math and at the end of the year it means being called an additional 10,920 times.
Before Hurricane Katrina, EMS was fielding 120 calls per day, and its 86 paramedics working on 13 ambulances were enough to handle the load.
Now, the men and women who provide pre-hospital emergency care in East Baton Rouge Parish need more people — and fast.
“We are thirsty for help,” EMS public service coordinator Tom Harris said. “Once we get more staff, we can get more (ambulances), but right now we don’t have the staffing to man them.”
To combat the shortage, Harris said, EMS recently started paying students to attend its one-year paramedic school, for only the second time since 1994, when there also had been a shortage of paramedics.
Inside one of EMS’ classroom trailers adjacent to its downtown headquarters on Mayflower Street, instructor Alan Pittman explained the reasoning behind the decision as 22 cadets worked on resuscitation techniques.
EMS had been recruiting its paramedics from schools like Our Lady of the Lake College, which coupled its curricula with EMS’ year-long program.
After the exchange between the college and the EMS program recently ended, EMS was left to look for creative ways to attract students.
One way is to pay students while they undergo training — similar to a police academy, Pittman said.
“To be blunt, these are really smart people and other jobs pay more money,” Pittman said. “We’ve had several employees in the last year leave and go to medical school.”
EMS decided it would begin paying its students $6 an hour, he said.
“Predominantly, people don’t get into this line of work to make money,” Pittman said. “But I think we realized that for a lot of people, to not work for a year and really concentrate on this education, it was a lot to ask.”
The pay may not be much, but for Kimberly Preston, a 30-year-old Baton Rouge resident with a 6-year-old special-needs child, the money is enough to help her and her husband make ends meet and for her to start a new career.
“It’s possible I would have done it without the money,” Preston said. “But to go from an income to no income would have been hard.”
At the end of the training, and if cadets are approved in all areas of being a paramedic, a person with no college or experience will make at least $40,000 a year, Harris said.
Nearly 10 months after Katrina swept ashore, EMS is still scheduling its paramedics for mandatory overtime — the same system employed to address the increased call volume in the days after the storm’s landfall.
EMS is authorized to fill 109 positions throughout the department, Harris said, but because of the increased call volume and disability leave, the department is currently at a deficit of 21 percent, or 23 slots.
“We could have 40 people in that class right now and a year from now we would have openings,” Harris said. “We are rarely 100 percent staffed. That is just the nature of the business.”
Half of EMS’ $10 million annual budget comes from a dedicated portion of a property tax, and the other half comes from patient billing, according to Harris and the department’s Web site.
The funding for the student stipends was built into the budget six months ago, Harris said.
Nicole Jagers, a 28-year-old New Orleans native now living in Baton Rouge, was thrown to the wind after Katrina, spending time in Houston before retreating to Baton Rouge when Hurricane Rita threatened the Houston area.
After having her world flipped upside down and moving across the Gulf Coast for a few months, Jagers said, she can handle the pressure a paramedic faces each day.
“I don’t look at this as an opportunity to make money, I look at it as an opportunity to give back and help people,” Jagers said. “Right now, I am committed to EMS.”
Ringing off the hook
Emergency Medical Services, the public agency that handles emergency medical calls in East Baton Rouge Parish, is in need of more paramedics to handle the increased workload since Hurricane Katrina struck on Aug. 29.
Before the hurricane, EMS averaged about 120 calls a day.
Since the hurricane, EMS is averaging 150 calls a day, or 54,600 calls a year.
Thirty more calls a day equals an additional 10,920 calls a year.
For employment information, call the EMS Training Division at (225) 389-5155.
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