KENTUCKY – Scott County is having trouble retaining Emergency Medical Service workers.
The News-Graphic reported employee turnover for Georgetown-Scott County Emergency Medical Services was 49% last year, according to Brandon Remley, director of GSCEMS.
The Scott County Fiscal Court is trying to find solutions to this high turnover problem. The issue was discussed during the court’s meeting Friday morning.
The fiscal court approved the hire of two new personnel to EMS. However, the department is still not fully staffed. The department would like to have 24 paramedics, but are currently down nine, according to Remley. He expressed concern that there may not be enough staff to have a paramedic on every ambulance.
“We’re losing people and we’re having difficulty getting new people in the door,” said Jeff Mudrak, Scott County Human Resources director.
The median pay of EMS employees in Georgetown is about $2 below the median pay in similar counties, Mudrak said. As an immediate action to help remedy this difference, the magistrates approved a blanket $1 per hour bump in all EMS wages. The magistrates acknowledged this is merely an immediate action to what will be a more holistic solution.
“We can’t push this can down the road anymore,” said County Judge-Executive Joe Pat Covington.
The magistrates also approved the program to pay for EMS employees’ training in exchange for years of service to the county, which was proposed by Remley. The intention of the program is to encourage EMS hires to stay and work in the county. The county will pay half the cost of the employee’s training program, then after one year of the employee working with the county, forgive that debt and pay one third of what the employee paid over three years of service.
Another measure taken to allow more hires was a change to the EMS dress code. The court passed a measure to now allow EMS personnel to have visible tattoos. Remley acknowledged tattoos are more common now than before and shouldn’t be a limiting factor for employees.
The court will continue to explore solutions to the turnover rate in EMS. One idea, offered by Remley, is to provide in-house training/licensing to EMS employees. While it would cost the county to get the accreditation, this could possibly save money over time by lowering the training costs caused by high employee turnover.
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