Johnson County Med-Act will stop operating some ambulances because of a staffing shortage.
Starting in September, Johnson County Med-Act will work under reduced operations, with only 17 of its 20 ambulances running. As part of the change: Med-Act will reassign staff from three of its ambulances to make sure its ambulances that run 24/7 can continue running.
What will change? The three ambulances that won’t be running are “impact ambulances” that typically run during peak hours, which is usually between 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday through Friday.
- The other 17 ambulances are in service for 24 hours a day.
- To ensure the other 17 ambulances have sufficient staff, the staff from the three impact ambulances will be reassigned to the 24/7 ambulances until the department brings on additional paramedics and EMTs.
- The changes begin Sept. 1 and will continue for roughly 120 days, or however long it takes to fill more positions.
Current demand: Johnson County MED-ACT Chief Paul Davis said the department normally receives 50,000 calls every year and does roughly 36,000 transports every year.
- A total of 130 paramedics and emergency medical technicians are considered a full staff to accommodate those transports, but the department is currently down by 14 of those positions, or a vacancy rate of 11%.
- Johnson County MED-ACT Chief Paul Davis said that, as a result, many EMTs and paramedics have had to work overtime for the last year and a half.
- “The benefit that we expect is (scaling back operations) will give our folks perhaps a little bit of rest,” he said. “We’ve been doing mandatory overtime now since October of 2021.”
Meeting the demand: Johnson County MED-ACT is hiring 14 new paramedics and EMTs.
- Interested candidates can find more information about how to apply here.
- Davis said former staff have left the roles for various reasons, but one factor is the heavy workload the job entails — which he said the current reassigning of employees might help lessen.
- “In recent months, folks have gone to other departments for equal pay or less pay, but for a lot less of a workload,” Davis said. “So that’s something that we’re cognizant of and that we’re trying to help alleviate.”
Addressing the problem: Deputy County Manager Maury Thompson said addressing the need to fill extra county positions is a factor in the proposed 2023 budget, which will come before the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners for approval next week.
- As of right now, that includes a 2% salary increase for market adjustment and a 3% merit-based increase.
- “We’ve had to make tough decisions about allocation of resources,” Thompson said. “(Reassigning MED-ACT employees) was a way to make sure we were able to keep ambulances in the community running and fully staffed.”