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EMS officials seek Rescue Plan funds for recruitment, retention, marketing

Times Observer photo Two ambulances parked outside the emergency room entrance at Warren General Hospital. Local EMS officials took their concerns to the county commissioners during Monday’s work session.

About one in every three EMS calls in Warren County between March 1 and the end of October went unanswered by the home agency dispatched by the 911 Center.

Foreboding data like that was just part of a presentation made on ambulance response issues to the county commissioners during Monday’s work session.

Paul Pascuzzi, chair of the Warren County Intergovernmental Co-Op’s Fire Services Committee, said emergency medical service response in the county has “for many years” been supported “basically by our volunteer fire departments.”

He presented some good news — the county as 11 basic life support agencies that have survived amid fears of what could happen if one left the ambulance business.

The bad news is much more obvious — “staffing continues to be a serious issue” both for the volunteers but also for the paid entities in the county — EmergyCare and the City of Warren.

He told the commissioners that the county is “one of only a handful of counties that have this kind of model supported by volunteers.”

While discussions about EMS challenges are on a steep incline in various meetings, there’s no golden egg solution on the horizon.

“We’re well away from having… actionable items to really address EMS in Warren County,” Pascuzzi said.

Public Safety Director Ken McCorrison — who oversees the 911 Center — said that a total of 538 of 1,505 dispatches between March and the end of October “were not covered by the agency that was under contract” to handle those calls.

He said that dropped call rate is 10 percent higher than tracking in 2018 and 2019.

“We have some volunteer agencies that are doing well,” he explained. “One volunteer (agency) has only missed 1.4 percent. (That) agency has a staffing plan.”

Other agencies, he said, have drop rates of upwards of 60 percent.

“That is of great concern,” he said.

“Demand in 2020 and into 2021 has exploded as well,” Pascuzzi said, suggesting the EmergyCare’s presence in the county has doubled in the last decade.

Jonie Smitley, the county’s infectious disease nurse, said she’s been visiting with the departments, listening to their challenges and scheduling training classes. She also outlined efforts to promote awareness of the crisis at the county fair.

She said that many of the people she spoke to had no idea of the challenges the system faces.

The specific “ask” of the commissioners on Monday was for a $27,880 allocation from the county’s American Rescue Plan funding for phase two of a marketing and promotion campaign specifically targeting fire and EMS.

“I think this is a life or death situation,” Donnie Rosie, who coordinated phase one of the campaign funded by CARES Act dollars, said.

Rosie said the effort started back in 2017 “just helping to tell the story.” That’s grown to a Facebook page as well as a website, anyonecanserve.com.

“(We are) looking at expanding on what we’ve done,” Pascuzzi said.

Rosie said his proposal would offer each department in the county production of a one to three minute video that they can use for promotion “which is a pretty big project.” It also includes individual features of eight to 10 EMS volunteers as well as keeping the website up to date and the social media page active.

“The value is just fantastic,” Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said of Rosie’s work.

“(We) think it’s a significant benefit,” Pascuzzi added.

What that won’t include, he said, was county-wide paid fire and EMS.

“We cannot afford a career and paid fire and EMS… for all corners of Warren County,” he said, calling such a proposal “not sustainable” and “not affordable.”

But that doesn’t mean the system as it looks today can hold well into the future, either.

“We anticipate a transition from the delivery of EMS. What that looks like is very unclear. We do anticipate a transition.”

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