How the Karns City EMS director juggles work with 2 EMS departments
For Amy McConnell, work in emergency medical services is not a nine-to-five job. It’s a career that requires extraordinary commitment and dedication, to the tune of nearly 100 hours per week.
“Very seldom do I work a 40-hour work week,” McConnell said. “There are times where I’m not home for 40 hours.”
For much of her work week, McConnell is the engine that keeps emergency services running in northeastern Butler County in communities like Karns City, Chicora and East Brady.
She serves as director of operations of Karns City Regional Ambulance Service, a title that carries a lot of responsibility, plus works part time with the nearby East Brady Ambulance Service.
“I’m responsible for all the day-to-day activities with the service,” McConnell said of her job with Karns City. “I do the biweekly schedule. I make sure the charts are done for billing. I make sure all the inventory is there. It’s just a lot of handling employee issues.”
On top of all of that, McConnell juggles additional duties as an EMT with the nearby East Brady Ambulance Service, just across the county line in Clarion County.
McConnell estimates she works 96 hours in an average week.
“Some weeks I go in at midnight and end at 4 (p.m.),” McConnell said. “I go home for eight hours, and I leave and maybe go to East Brady for 16 hours. And then I may leave East Brady at 4 and go to Karns City for another 16 hours.”
Both health care and grueling work schedules run in McConnell’s family. Her daughter, Allison, is going to medical school at Midwestern University in Glendale, Ariz.
“She’ll be a doctor of osteopathic medicine and plans to pursue a career in pathology,” McConnell said. “Flights to Arizona aren’t cheap, and I try to put in what I can to help her out, too.”
McConnell started out as a volunteer EMT with Petrolia Ambulance Service before turning professional in 2011. She also has worked for Emlenton Area EMS and East Butler Ambulance Service.
But it takes someone with a very particular personality to want to take on such a schedule year after year. She described herself as “nosy.”
“I opted to do it professionally back in 2011 when I became a single mom,” McConnell said. “When I started as a volunteer, it was just something I was interested in.
“I guess you’ll find that most of us in this field are very nosy — and we want to be there for our communities to provide care.”
In 2016, Petrolia Ambulance Service merged with another agency in Chicora to form what is now Karns City Ambulance Service.
“Those were years of struggle when we first merged,” McConnell said. “As of right now, we’re holding our own and filling a schedule. There are some weeks where we’re able to put on two crews, so staffing is getting a little better for us.”
As a veteran of several EMS agencies in Western Pennsylvania, McConnell has insight into many of the issues facing EMS providers in the Keystone State, including staffing, financing and logistical hurdles.
One of the struggles she faces is a decrease in staffing compared to when she started.
“When I first started, you used to have to fight people off the ambulance because you couldn’t take 13 people for one call,” McConnell said. “It was almost like a party bus. You had 10 people in an ambulance to come help one person.
“Now we can't even get them in an ambulance. This doesn’t seem to be a field that a lot of people want to go into.”
However, McConnell does see a silver lining in Butler County Community College’s EMS training program, which offers certification training and a pathway to work for one of Butler County’s EMS agencies, along with a weekly stipend.
“It has produced a lot of providers for this area,” McConnell said. “There's a couple of them that have continued their education that are actually now in the paramedic program.”
