TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Stories about short staffing are in abundance all over the country and in Michigan but short staffing of EMS (Emergency Medical Services) workers is quite different than having to wait 30 minutes at your favorite restaurant or a week or two for a car part.
When you have been in a car accident or have suffered a heart attack, you need the quick response of an EMS team coming to you in their ambulance so that you can be transported to a hospital. It’s truly a matter of life and death.
But across Michigan, like in the rest of the country, those EMS workers are in short supply.
In order to combat the EMS shortage, the Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has issued a Request for Proposal for Emergency Medical Services Workforce grants to provide funding for training of Michigan EMS personnel.
The program is to establish, implement and operate workforce development programs – training people in emergency medical services to address the critical shortage of paramedics statewide and to increase accessibility to EMS educational programs.
The award period starts February 1, 2023 and ends September 30, 2023 and MDHHS expects to award approximately $9 million with a maximum of $350K for a single applicant.
EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) see the patients first and start entry-level care while that patient is being transported to the hospital. They monitor the condition of the patient and examine the severity of the patient’s injury or illness and inform the hospital on their condition. They work closely with paramedics but their level of care is more limited. They administer basic medical care and CPR.
Paramedics are more advanced than EMTs and are able to perform more sophisticated treatment including administering medicines, performing intubation and inserting IVs.
In the city of Detroit, they are down 200 firefighters and 100 EMS workers and recently announced that the last contract negotiations combined the roles into a single position. The process is reportedly underway and Fire Commissioner Charles Simms said, “We have classes going on every month. And it will take some time because we don’t want to deplete EMS to do this crossover training. For some of the EMS members, it is going to take eight to ten weeks to train them.”
Fox2 Detroit says that the shortage is taking a toll on current firefighters and EMS, limiting their ability to respond efficiently.
Tom Gehart, president of Detroit’s firefighter union, said, “A gunshot wound…they need a surgeon, they don’t need us. They need us to get them to the hospital quick and if we don’t have the ambulance coming for transport, us being there trying to keep that person going, it’s not helping.”
Michigan News Source reached out to Angela Madden, Executive Director of the MI Association of Ambulance Services to ask how critical the staffing shortages of EMS personnel are. She said, “Michigan has been facing a severe shortage of EMS personnel for many years. The onset of the pandemic truly catapulted the shortage into a crisis, as the level of new recruits into the field plummeted to virtually zero. There are currently more people leaving EMS each year than joining the field, and that’s why this effort to boost the workforce is so critical.”
She welcomes the EMS grants that are being offered and said, “The EMS grants will be instrumental to solving the EMS staffing shortage. Grants provided by the state will help get much-needed staff trained and into the field to protect Michigan communities across the state. The grants will cover tuition and paramedic training at existing state EMS programs, reimburse students for attending and greatly increase access to EMS training in rural areas.”
She added, “EMS in Michigan has been underfunded for decades, as costs continued to rise, leading to the staffing shortage. The grant program is a critical step to saving the EMS industry, which is essential to keeping our communities safe and healthy.”
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