County EMT training program a good start toward addressing crisis
We learned in Tuesday's Eagle about a proposal from the Butler County commissioners to solve a major problem facing the region — a lack of emergency medical professionals.
Commissioners are considering an academy model to train emergency medical technicians, and the training program could launch as soon as January.
This isn't the first time we've spoken about the shortage of EMTs and paramedics, and we are not the only part of the state facing a real crisis when it comes to ambulance staffing.
As the commissioners noted, staffing shortages have dogged emergency medical providers for years now. Commissioner Kim Geyer told how her father had to wait for 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive after a stroke.
There isn't one solution to this issue, because there isn't one cause. A major issue is that, at least in Butler County, both EMTs and paramedics make less than in other parts of the region, which makes it hard to recruit and then retain qualified people.
Another is that reimbursement rates from both private insurance and government programs like Medicare and Medicaid are far below the actual cost to provide services.
And that's before you consider that in some cases, like when an ambulance responds and treats a patient but doesn't transport them to the hospital, insurance companies won't pay anything.
“Nobody's paying for that cost of readiness,” said Leslie Osche, commissioners’ chairwoman.
And even when the reimbursement does come, it's normally sent to the patient, who sometimes doesn't send that money on to the ambulance service.
This has serious implications when it comes to emergency medical services. And in Pennsylvania, boroughs and townships are responsible for providing those services.
A report from the County Commissioners Association on emergency medical services summed up the problem.
“One comment that was heard several times during the course of this project is that municipalities do not contribute financially to EMS agencies because EMS services can bill for their services while fire departments and police departments cannot,” according to the report. “However, it is apparent that billing alone is not sufficient to keep EMS agencies solvent and operating, and, in turn, fulfilling the requirements of boroughs and townships to provide EMS service.”
A final hurdle is that there is a shortage of qualified instructors, which can make training courses hard to find and might make scheduling the courses difficult.
There are still plenty of details that need to be clarified, but it's obvious that our county and our entire state are facing a crisis — there just aren't enough emergency medical personnel to keep our communities safe.
Training new EMTs isn't the only thing that needs to happen. State and federal officials need to work on improving reimbursement rates, and wages need to rise.
But a new training program is a good start toward solving the ongoing EMT shortage and we are looking forward to similar projects in the future.
— JK
