Ambulances idle because of ‘dire’ Port EMT shortage

For nine hours on Monday, the Port Washington ambulance service didn’t have enough emergency medical technicians to staff its ambulance, Fire Chief Mark Mitchell told the Police and Fire Commission Monday.

The calls that came in to the department instead had to be handled by the Grafton ambulance crew, Mitchell said.

“I had two Grafton ambulances in the City of Port Washington  answering calls at one time,” he said. “I had three ambulances in the station sitting there because I had no one to staff them. It’s embarrassing.”

The minimum number of people needed to staff the ambulance is two, Mitchell said. One EMT came in at 8 a.m. and went to calls to assess patients until the Grafton ambulance arrived throughout the morning. She was replaced at 2 p.m. by another EMT, but it wasn’t until 3 p.m. Monday that the ambulance was fully staffed, Mitchell said.

While he had enough people to staff the ambulance on Tuesday and Wednesday, he told the commission, Thursday is a different story. Once again, he will start the day without an EMT on duty.

Only one person is scheduled to work, meaning the department won’t have enough crew members on call to staff the ambulance Thursday. 

“It’s really getting dire — it’s beyond dire, it’s catastrophic. We need help,” Mitchell said. “We don’t have adequate staffing. It’s overwhelming.”

Commission member Jim Biever said it’s a “disturbing situation.”

“In many cases, it’s life and death,” he said. “There’s no bigger responsibility of a community than protective services.” 

Commission Chairman Rick Nelson told the Common Council on Tuesday that he’s never seen Mitchell as concerned about staffing.

“This is getting critical that we can’t respond in a life-saving manner,” he said, noting that calling in another department to cover calls in Port adds minutes to the response time.

“That’s just not the way we save lives,” he said.

Port Mayor Marty Becker told aldermen Tuesday that he would like to find the money to include two more full-time ambulance crew members in the 2021 budget.

Becker said he was “shocked ” when he heard that the department had to depend on Grafton to cover ambulance calls Monday. “There are certain things we should spend money on.” 

The problem staffing the ambulance isn’t a new one, Mitchell said, nor is it unique to Port Washington. Every department in the area has similar issues.

On Monday he called to see if Saukville could cover for the Port ambulance, he said, but they didn’t have the staff to handle Port’s calls.

The situation has been mounting for years, Mitchell added, but this year is exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. 

“We have people here who just don’t want to take the added risk,” Mitchell said. “It’s just compounded what we’re dealing with.”

At the same time the department is struggling to find ambulance crew members, its call volume is increasing significantly. Mitchell said the department receives about 100 ambulance calls a month.

The ambulance traditionally has had a crew of about 30 EMTs, paramedics and drivers, but that number has dwindled to about 10, he said, noting people today don’t have the time or desire to volunteer for the job.

Mitchell said the only solution he can see is to hire full-time staff members.  The department is authorized to fill one full-time firefighter/paramedic position, but it will take three to ensure the ambulance is staffed around the clock, he said.

He said he asked for the two additional positions in the 2021 budget but they are not in the proposed spending plan.

His frustration over that decision increased when he looked at the budget and saw about one-third of the city’s budget is devoted to the Police Department and 20% to the Street Department. The Fire Department, he said gets only 8% of the budget‚ in large part because it is staffed primarily by paid-on call volunteers.

“I don’t know when that’s going to change,” he said. “I think what we do is as important as what they do.

“We’ve gone down this path too long. We’re putting a Band Aid on it every year. I’m getting very discouraged. Our call volume is increasing. We’re the second busiest department in the county.”

The City of Mequon and Village of Grafton departments have both been adding full-time staff, he said, and five communities around the state recently held referendums to increase their emergency medical services funding that handily passed.

Commission members noted that the department hasn’t been able to fill the one full-time position it has. The reasons are many, they said.

Fewer people are going into the EMS field, Mitchell said, noting the training is significant. 

Many communities pay higher wages to their ambulance staff members than Port does, he added. 

“We’re in competition with our surrounding communities,” he said.

Mitchell said some members of the department have suggested that instead of seeking a firefighter/paramedic, the city look instead to hire a full-time paramedic.

He may bring a proposal for that change to the commission in the coming months, he said.

Commission member Terry Tietyen said a new firehouse with facilities to sleep, shower and work out is essential. 

“There’s no where to shower. There’s no place to sleep. There’s no privacy,” he said of the current fire station. “That’s important to this generation. Money will help. Having a place to stay, to sleep, to clean up, is necessary.”

Mitchell said city officials have told him nothing will be done until a shared services study of the county fire services is completed later this year.

But, he said, it won’t change the current situation and any recommendations made in the study will take time to implement.

“Right now, we don’t have the time,” he said.

Ald. Dan Benning, a member of the city’s Finance and License Committee who attended Monday’s meeting, said the city plans to conduct a staffing study of the department to help find a solution.

“I look at it to give us the marketing materials for a referendum,” Benning said.

“There’s no magic answer in the short term. I wish I had an answer.”

The “short-term saving grace,” he said, is the relationship Mitchell has built with neighboring departments who the city depends on for help when it doesn’t have adquate staffing.

Mitchell said he continues to try and recruit people, but it isn’t easy given the pandemic and the commitment of time the job takes.

“It’s not like it used to be,” he said, recalling the days when membership in the department was a calling many answered.