St. Mary’s County is considered to have a good emergency services department, but the county commissioners learned what they can do to make it even better through a study they requested.
Rick Harrison of Mission Critical Partners gave a 39-minute presentation on his findings of a countywide review of emergency medical services study Tuesday in Leonardtown.
Harrison told the commissioners that standard guidelines — even in rural settings — dictate EMS units try to arrive on the scene of a call within 10 minutes, and a map which showed six road miles from rescue squads were shown in red.
“This county is covered really well,” Harrison said, “and I was pleasantly surprised by that.”
Call locations made in 2022 showed the bulk were in Lexington Park, north on Route 235 to Mechanicsville and in Leonardtown.
Of the eight companies, Lexington Park Volunteer Rescue Squad Company 39 took 5,398 calls in 2023, while Lexington Park VRS Company 38 took 4,805. Six companies missed 10% or more of their calls, which the study said was “a concern.”
The study also showed that rescue squads in Second District, Leonardtown, Ridge and Hollywood are “at risk for long-term sustainability” with less than 35 active members each.
“They are committed, they are absolutely committed to making their agency successful and I give them kudos for that,” Harrison said. “But when I’m seeing 15% of the total membership is actually running [calls] it makes me worry. I’m just concerned that some of those numbers are getting lower.”
He said during station interviews, “It wasn’t 18-year-old kids I was meeting. It was older folks, and at some time they’re going to step away.”
“We’re seeing an uptick in new members coming in and we’re hoping that trend will continue,” Commissioner Eric Colvin (R) said, and added he hoped the county’s “very strong” high school fire and EMS cadet program would help.
But Harrison said dwindling numbers are not unusual.
“It’s not a St. Mary’s problem, it’s a national problem,” he said. “A lot of the places I go to I see the career side start to creep in. They get their sea legs volunteering and they like it, but want to make some money.”
Colvin said some of the issue stems from increasing requirements and training, making it harder to become certified.
“When I first started, it was in the tens of hours and now it’s in the hundreds of hours,” Harrison said. “On the flip-side of that, training is important. I don’t ever say training should be reduced, but it has increased substantially.”
Harrison also noted there are 26 transportable EMS units in the county, while his study suggested 10 or 11 are needed but added it is not wasteful as some companies assist others as well as community events and functions.
He said each station should have one chief, one assistant, four lieutenants, eight paramedics, 48 EMTs, two fiscal specialists and an administrative assistant. He suggested slowly increasing that to 18 paramedics and 65 EMTs for 24-hour coverage. Harrison added the county’s 7:1 ratio of supervisors to personnel is “above the standard.”
Among the recommendations in the study’s five-year plan is to create a pay ladder, initiate signing bonuses, develop a centrally-located garage/storage building and save chase vehicles by putting a paramedic and EMT in the same vehicle.
“If we want to recruit employees,” Harrison said of the bonuses and pay ladder, “we want to retain them.”
Harrison also called for minimum shift requirements for part-time staff because “the tail’s wagging the dog right now because those people people can call their own shots. There should be shift parameters.”
“This is valuable information for the commissioners to look back on,” Commissioner President Randy Guy (R) said, “and make some decisions on.”
LOSAP gets thumbs upThe commissioners also approved the fire, rescue and ALS eligibility lists for the Length of Service Awards Program service credit for 2023. The plan offers payments to emergency service volunteers after a certain number of years serving.
Under the plan, for instance, those aged 55 would receive $225 per month while those aged 60 would receive $300 per month. Both would also receive an extra $10 per month for every year over 20. Those age 70 without 20 years of active service would receive $10 per month times the number of years of service completed.
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