County allows Advanced EMTs to take place of paramedics on ambulances when necessary

Jefferson County commissioners unanimously approved a request from Gold Cross EMS Thursday, Nov. 9, to amend their agreement to allow Advanced EMTs to take the place of paramedics on their local ambulances when paramedics are not available.

John Smith, Gold Cross’ Senior Director of Operations, told the commissioners that there is a nationwide shortage of paramedics in the field. Gold Cross has been operating ambulances in Columbia County this way for the last 18 months of so, Smith said.

“We have upped salaries. We've recruited. Nobody wants to do it as much as they did,” Smith said. “There’s not a huge difference in what an Advanced EMT can do and what a paramedic can do.”

Advanced EMTs go to school for about 16 weeks where paramedics receive a year’s training, Smith said. Paramedics can provide deeper levels of assessment, administer certain respiratory and pain management drugs Advanced EMTs cannot.

“All of our ambulances have cardiac monitors with the capability to send an EKG reading from the scene to an emergency room doctor so that he can see what we are seeing in the field and give them instruction on what to do,” Smith said. “It’s always our goal to have a paramedic but there are days when if we can’t allow an Advanced EMT to take their place, then we’re not going to have a truck. We don’t want that to happen here. We’re going to try to keep a paramedic in each truck, but we just need that flexibility. That’s all we’re asking.”

Over the last 12 months Gold Cross has lost three paramedics from the Wrens station. One died, another is currently out on medical leave and third worked three shifts and left the company to take a job at an Augusta hospital.

“This is a statewide problem, specifically in rural counties,” Smith said.

Commissioner Chair Mitchell McGraw pointed out that several weeks ago, the Wrens ambulance was out on transport when five calls came in for assistance within about an hour of each other.

“I don’t think we have much choice,” McGraw told his fellow commissioners. “We don’t want to be in that place where we don’t have an ambulance in Wrens because they didn’t have a paramedic.”

Smith told the commissioners that there are a lot more Advanced EMTs out there than there are paramedics.

By contract, Gold Cross normally has two ambulances stationed in Jefferson County, one in Wrens and one in Louisville. There are three paramedics normally working shifts in both of these ambulance stations. Gold Cross is currently down a paramedic in Wrens, but looking to fill that position.

“We will still have a paramedic when we can,” Smith said. “That’s our goal. We are not abandoning that. We just need the flexibility to put an Advanced EMT in there if we have to.”

Commissioner William Toulson made the motion to amend the EMS contract with Gold Cross to allow for an Advanced EMT to fill a paramedic’s spot on a local ambulance if and when a paramedic is not available. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Wayne Davis and passed unanimously.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Advanced EMTs allowed to take place of paramedics on ambulances