By Kelly Monitz
The Standard-Speaker
HAZELTON, Pa. — Area ambulance providers are dealing with staffing issues due to a lack of emergency medical technicians to handle calls.
“There’s never enough of EMTs. We’re always short-handed on that,” said Dan Bobby of the Freeland Northside Community Ambulance Association. “That’s been going on for years.”
When an ambulance service in Hazleton doesn’t have a crew for an emergency call, Luzerne County 911 dispatches another company in a neighboring community to cover the call, taking that unit out of their primary coverage area.
“We have two ambulances. We already had both ambulances in the city,” Sugarloaf Township Fire Chief Duane Hildebrand said, adding that if a call comes in for the township, another community’s ambulance will have to pick it up. “It’s a domino effect.”
American Patient Transport Systems Inc. of Hazleton, the largest ambulance service in the region, covers most of southern Luzerne County where its units are either first or second due responding units and feels the drain on the system.
“We don’t have enough EMTs,” said David Fatula, APTS general manager, adding they can’t cover all the shifts that they want to man, leading to gaps and missed calls during historically busy hours.
Fatula notes that the service isn’t going to cover all the calls in its coverage area, or it would go broke as a business, he said. Previously, APTS missed 2 to
3 percent of the 700 calls it receives a month. Due to the EMT shortage, the missed, or scratch, calls rate has crept up to 5 percent or more, he said. Even one extra crew during peak times would bring down the scratch rate by at least a percentage point, he said.
“We watch the trends and the peak times,” Fatula said, adding that they schedule personnel for when they project the greatest need. “But they don’t schedule heart attacks and car crashes.”
APTS is paying its people 300 hours a week in overtime to cover shifts at peak times.
Plus, the heroin epidemic has put an added a strain on the system, he said. Fatula explained that they know when the “good heroin” is coming into town by the call spike in the surrounding communities and finally Hazleton, he said.
“You can see it come down the line,” he said. “When the heroin comes in, we put an extra crew on.”
The repeated overdose calls divert ambulances away from other emergencies, he said. And it’s not only heroin that’s to blame.
Two ambulance crews are needed when someone takes Spice, or synthetic marijuana, which causes people to hallucinate and act violently, he said.
The sheer number of calls a day beat up and drive away personnel, Fatula said. They seek jobs in smaller communities, often for less pay but with lower call volumes, he said. APTS also lost quality people to Amazon, which has its own on-site medical staff and pays more money, he said.
“I can’t offer them $20 an hour. It’s not going to happen,” Fatula said, noting that reimbursements from Medicare and Medical Assistance, which accounts from 50 percent of the company’s income, haven’t increased in years. “We’re competing against everyone. I wish I could pay them what they deserve.”
Fatula expects to lose even more personnel in the future, as some are studying to become nurses, he said.
“There is no fresh blood to take their places,” he said.
Hazleton General Hospital used to offer EMT classes annually, Hildebrand said, but there hasn’t been one in years.
The hospital, now Lehigh Valley Hospita—Hazleton, hasn’t offered a class in at least five years, said Dennis Ganc, APTS’ director of marketing and education. APTS attempted to put together a program to bolster the ranks, but couldn’t get the required 10 people to sign up — the interest wasn’t there, he said.
APTS considered sending three people to attend EMT classes at Luzerne County Community College at a cost of $10,000, Fatula said. Then, they approached the hospital about hosting classes, which was a more affordable option, he said.
The hospital will offer EMT classes beginning Sept. 6 and interest is much better for this class, Fatula said. APTS plans to send nine of its employees to the class and the McAdoo Fire Company. is also sending six or seven people.
In McAdoo, the fire company has trouble finding people to man the ambulance during the day, when many members are at work.
“It’s during the day when it’s difficult,” Fire Chief Bob Leshko said. “We’re making the best of what we have. We had people who wanted to go to class. Hopefully, it will fill the void.”
The fire company is paying for the classes, just as APTS is with its employees, he said, but there are requirements, such as responding to a certain number of calls a month, and if they fail to comply with the rules, they must pay the fire company back.
“We’re going to cover ourselves. We have a legal contract,” Leshko said. “It’s unfortunate you have to do it this way.”
Leshko is confident that those signed up will stay with the company, as they’re are either members or have a parent who is a member, he said.
“We’re always looking for people who are interested,” he said. “We’ll sit down with them and see how serious they are.”
The maximum class size is going to be 25 to 30, Ganc said. He encourages anyone interested in taking the class, which cost $600, to contact him at 570-453-1445, ext. 6, or Michele Cassic at the hospital at 570-501-4000.
“We’d be happy to get more people into the system,” Fatula said. “I’m hopeful that we can get five, six, seven EMTs out of it.”
Copyright 2016 the Standard-Speaker