Departments scramble to deal with EMT shortage

What’s been described as a “dire” shortage of emergency medical technicians and paramedics, has county fire departments coordinating with each other to make sure calls are answered.

“It started on Nov. 16,” Grafton Fire Chief Bill Rice said. “There were some shortages (of staff)  throughout the county and we also became very busy that day. That seemed like the day that covid-related calls seemed to really spike.”

That evening, fire chiefs met in a Zoom meeting to come up with a plan moving forward to avoid future interruptions in service.

That included going to 12-hour shifts and communicating daily to alert others if a department won’t be able to cover a shift, Rice said.

Grafton Division Chief Matt Karpinski is the clearinghouse for finding departments to cover for those whose service has been interrupted.

That’s resulted at times in Mequon covering for Thiensville and Waubeka covering for Grafton while Grafton is covering for Port Washington.

Fredonia Fire Chief Brian Weyker said one of his crews responded to four calls in a row over a six-hour period one day, answering calls in Belgium, Port Washington and the Fredonia area.

“It’s no joke,” Weyker said.

A sudden uptick in Covid-19 reports hit just as some of the departments were dealing with their own exposures to the virus.

“We had very high call volumes,” Rice said. “We had 10 calls a day for a week, when we usually got four. But we were able to cover.”

In an email to village officials on Nov. 23, Rice wrote: “Today was an epic day for our department. We have responded to 14 calls in and out of Grafton as of this email.”

Rice estimated four of every five calls over that span were Covid-19-related.

“It doesn’t mean every person had Covid, but we treat every call like it’s Covid,” he said.

The Thiensville Fire Department has been particularly hard hit by quarantines, he said, causing its two ambulance to sit idle. 

One was moved to Grafton’s firehouse 

where it could be used to cover calls.

Many EMTs and paramedics also work in health care and serve with fire departments part-time or as side jobs.

With the coronavirus, many of them are being told they can’t work outside those facilities.

Weyker said he hasn’t seen some of his staff since April because of that rule, but he has been able to maintain adequate staffing.

“We are stable,” he said.

With hospitals and other facilities also stretched to the limit because of the coronavirus, some have begun recruiting EMTs and paramedics, offering higher pay than what they can get with fire departments.

“We are well aware some hospital emergency departments have offered lucrative work” to fire department personnel, Rice said. “It hasn’t happened in Grafton, but I have seen the calls for help from other departments. I get it. I understand.”

Also contributing to the shortage is that paramedic and EMT classes were shut down last spring because of the onset of the virus, stopping the flow of newly trained crews, Port Washington Fire Chief Mark Mitchell said.

“Most of those have reconvened and people should be finishing up,” including one who will be joining the Port Washington department by year’s end, Mitchell said.

Last month, Mitchell told city Police and Fire Commission members the situation was dire and that he at times didn’t have enough crew to man the city’s three ambulances. 

“It’s really getting dire — it’s beyond dire, it’s catastrophic. We need help,” Mitchell said. “In many cases, it’s life and death.”

Port Mayor Marty Becker suggested the city find the money in the 2021 budget to hire two more full-time ambulance crew members.

Port traditionally has had a corps of about 30 EMTs, paramedics and drivers, but that number has dwindled to about 10, Mitchell said.

The only solution is to hire full-time staff members, he told commission members.

Rice said he felt the increased demand on departments hit its peak last week and has begun to plateau.

But that doesn’t mean the staffing problem will disappear.

A shared services study of county fire services by the Wisconsin Policy Forum is expected to be released in January.

The study was prompted by ongoing staffing issues as well as higher costs for equipment.

Reconfiguring ambulance coverage is likely one topic to be addressed by the study.

“We’re already doing what they’re looking at. This is just getting started,” Weyker said.

But it won’t alleviate the current situation and any recommendations made in the study will take time to implement, officials say.

Mitchell said one former paramedic returned to the department in the last couple weeks, which will help, he said.

“We’re seeing flashes of light at the end of the tunnel. But we’re still in the same boat,” Mitchell said. “It’s still not sustainable. I think that’s what the study is going to indicate.”