By Gregory Phillips
The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
Copyright 2006 The Durham Herald Co.
Emergency Medical Services Director Mike Smith doesn’t need more positions to meet community needs, he just needs employees to fill the positions he already has.
Faced with competition from higher-paying neighboring EMS systems and other, more lucrative careers offering a less stressful environment, the department struggles to recruit and retain quality staff, Smith said.
Smith didn’t request any new positions in his funding pitch for the next fiscal year during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
“If I had the staff I’m short now, we could accommodate everything,” Smith said. “It’s a vacancy issue at this point in time.”
County Manager Mike Ruffin is recommending a 9 percent increase for EMS in his budget proposal.
The additional money is spread among new vehicles and a new computer system.
But it’s the vacancies that’s problematic, Smith said. Nursing schools aggressively recruit paramedics, and he’s lost employees to respiratory therapy and the federal prison in Butner this year.
“I can’t compete with those kind of programs,” he said.
Smith has also had bad luck with some long-term injuries to staff, including a shoulder, two backs, a broken leg, an appendectomy and a gall bladder, he told commissioners.
“I feel we have done really well with the number of folks we serve every day,” Smith said.
Smith said county EMS has answered more than 22,000 calls this fiscal year. The average response time is 6 minutes, 37 seconds for emergency calls, which is within acceptable range according to national standards, he said.
A state task force has been set up to address EMS recruitment and retention, Smith said.
“Everyone across our state has the same problems,” he said.
Wake County EMS recruited an entire nine-strong graduating class from Wake Technical Community College and was still short of staff, Smith said. He plans to pursue the same goal with the 14 students currently enrolled in Durham Technical Community College’s paramedic program.
Commissioner Lewis Cheek suggested offering to pay for training in return for a commitment of time from recruits, something Smith said he’d like to see.
“Seems to me we ought to be able to enter into some sort of contract,” Cheek said.
The salary study commissioned by the county, currently due in September, will include recommended salary increases for EMS staff.
The commissioners will revisit the budgets for schools and mental health during their final work session from 9 a.m. until noon today.
Ruffin was tight-lipped on whether he’ll propose any more money for schools. He said he was waiting for some updated revenue projections.
“It all boils down to what funds, absent a tax increase, we have to give them,” he said.
Ruffin had proposed giving the school system $4.9 million of the $10.9 million increase the school board asked for, a total of $90.4 million in county money. School officials have since upped their increase request to $12.3 million, telling the county the school system needs that much to give locally paid teachers the same proposed 8 percent pay raise for state paid teachers.
Ruffin said he will propose more money today for The Durham Center, which is requesting an additional $500,000 to fight substance abuse. But he declined to say how much.
The county likely will approve a final budget June 26.