Volunteers needed to fulfill ambulance service needs

By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

The City of Monticello has implemented some changes to the Monticello Ambulance Service, all in an effort to provide a more efficient service.

Police Chief Britt Smith was named Administrative Director of the ambulance department, while long-time Monticello paramedic Lori Lynch was named and promoted to Lead Paramedic.

After part-time Ambulance Director Dawn Bruss stepped down last fall, the city was still in need of someone to take on the administrative duties associated with the ambulance department. However, was a director role still needed?

Smith said hiring a full- or part-time director would increase expenses for the ambulance department. It made more sense to utilize existing staff such as Smith and Lynch to take on those leadership roles. Smith takes on the day-to-day operations of the department, overseeing the personnel, finances, budget, scheduling, and organizational structure. Lynch will continue serving as a full-time paramedic, in addition to implementing the department policies, keeping up on the equipment needs, billing of calls, and continuing the education and certification of staff.

Lynch has been with the department for 12 years, and holds a lot of experience and knowledge of the ambulance service.

“I wanted to be more involved and accountable for the service,” explained Lynch of taking on more of a leadership role. “It’s a way to move up in the ranks and learn more about how the service can run in general.”

The Public Safety Building houses both the Monticello Police and Monticello Ambulance departments. Smith said it only made sense for him to take on more of an administrator role.

“It reduces the additional director position, and is a cost savings,” he said. “I’m here five days a week, and I have lots of experience on the police department side. It’s similar to running an ambulance service; a lot of the things are the same.”

Other than leadership changes, Smith and Lynch anticipate a new staff-schedule change come roughly April 1. This involves a recruitment campaign for more community volunteers to serve as ambulance drivers, with the hope that those same volunteers work their way up to EMTs and paramedics.

“Increasing the number of volunteer hours and reducing the number of hours covered by paramedics will be the only significant way to reduce daily operating costs,” Smith explained to the Monticello City Council via his monthly report.

One of those new recruitment efforts is to increase the on-call hourly rate of pay from $2 to $8.

On-call volunteers typically cover the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, seven days a week.

“We’ll have to hire and pay full-time staff if we can’t find enough volunteers,” said Smith. “Our overnight hours are when the call volume goes down.”

Ideally, a single volunteer would work one shift every two weeks, which also helps in keeping up with their training.

                                                                             “I think that’s a realistic goal,” added Smith.

Lynch said up until now, the department has never needed to recruit ambulance drivers. For the past 20 years, the department maintained 20 percent paid staff and 80 percent on-call volunteers. Now, it’s 85 percent staff and 15 percent volunteers when you consider the actual amount of hours worked in a week.

“If we reverse that, we can reduce expenses,” Smith said. “Our biggest expense is personnel.”

On-call volunteers can still maintain their normal family life, simply being available when they’re paged out.

Smith said the change would also eliminate the need for two paramedics to attend a call to one paramedic and one driver/EMT.

“We’re not lowering our level of service,” explained Lynch. “We’ll have the same paramedic service as we’ve had before. We’re not downgrading our level of care at all.”

Lynch said rural EMS services all over the country are experiencing staffing issues and the need for increased volunteers.

Ideally, volunteers should reside within a 2-3-mile radius of city limits. However, both Smith and Lynch said this distance could be evaluated on a case-by-case basis if needed.

“We have a nice facility, and they can stay here overnight if they live outside of our response area,” offered Lynch of the hospitality of the Public Safety Building.

“We benefit from more staff and they (the volunteers) gain the medical knowledge and experience,” Smith added of a win-win situation for everyone. “Many hands make light work. The more (volunteers) we have, the greater the opportunity to fill the weeks.”

“The change will not be seen in the community,” Lynch said, putting residents at ease. “It’ll be more internally.”

If you’d like to join the Monticello Ambulance Department, contact Smith or Lynch at 319-465-3526 to discuss your options.

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