The recent announcement by Gov. Jim Justice that he is directing a portion of the CARES Act funding West Virginia received from the federal government to first responders and strengthening the state’s nursing programs is welcome news. I applaud his efforts.
In the Kanawha Valley, as in most areas of the state, the shortage of direct care providers is profound and has continued to grow under the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. This shortage threatens our health delivery system.
I am particularly concerned about addressing the needs of our emergency medical services (EMS), which are in dire straits. Long-standing problems have been exacerbated by COVID-19.
As a county commissioner in Kanawha County, the state’s most populous county, I work closely with the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority (KCEAA), which is the largest of the public ambulance authorities that were formed pursuant to legislative action years ago. In my 25 years as a commissioner, I never have seen greater demand for EMS professionals and other health care providers. Nor have I seen the pipeline that historically has turned out many trained professionals running at the trickle it is today. We have a workforce crisis in health care.
The combination of fewer newly trained professionals being turned out coupled with having existing, highly experienced professionals reaching or rapidly approachingretirement age, moving to other jobs, or just vanishing from the workforce entirely has reached a crisis point.
The KCEAA needs 70 paramedics to staff stations and operate about 25 response trucks per shift throughout the county. Its current headcount is 52. Of those 52 paramedics, 20 percent can retire now or within the next two years.
It seems clear that the current training pipeline simply will not produce anywhere close to the number of trained professionals KCEAA should hire to address its current shortage, much less the potential need to replace 20 percent of those who are currently employed. And the problem is not just with paramedics because the shortage of emergency medical technicians (EMTs) in Kanawha County and statewide is just as significant and equally concerning.
Workforce data from the Department of Health and Human Resources’ Office of Medical Services show that over three years, 2019 through 2021, the statewide EMS community lost almost 30 percent of its certified providers – dropping from 6,749 to 4,788 across all levels of certification. More concerning are the reductions of 1,643 EMTs – almost 36 percent – and 258 paramedics – almost 15 percent.
Other large EMS agencies operating in nearby counties report workforce challenges like those of KCEAA. Logan Emergency Ambulance Services Authority (LEASA), which is a statutory public authority like KCEAA, currently faces a shortage of six fulltime paramedics and two fulltime EMTs, and over the past two years, LEASA has lost more than 40 paramedics and EMTs.
Jan-Care Ambulance Services, which is the state’s largest EMS provider, reports struggling to fill more than 100 vacancies across all levels of certification, including paramedics, EMTs and others. Like KCEAA, Jan-Care has a substantial in-house education and training program that has turned out hundreds of trained professionals over the years, but it is simply unable to keep up these days.
Just as Gov. Justice has directed CARES Act funds to address the nursing shortage, we need a similar dedicated source of funding to be directed to address the shortage of EMS personnel. Without such dedicated funding, I fear that the inability to find, hire and retain trained EMS professionals places the entire statewide emergency response system at increased risk.
I urge the governor and legislators to address this critical need as soon as possible. I am encouraged that the chairman of the House Committee on Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services, Delegate Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, has issued a similar request to Gov. Justice. Let’s hope many of his colleagues join him in that effort.
Kent Carper is president of the Kanawha County Commissionand has a long history in emergency medical services.
[Not for publication: Commissioner Carper may be reached through his assistant, Amy Petry, at 304-357-0656 or AmyPetry@kanawha.us.]