Gov. Kathy Hochul recently reauthorized emergency medical technicians to provide COVID-19 shots in the state. However, a local emergency professional worried about the low staffing levels for ambulances and hospital emergency rooms.
Ed Binns is the operations manager of TLC Emergency Medical Services
in Syracuse and oversees Onondaga County. He said EMTs were previously allowed to administer COVID-19 vaccines at state and county sites, but the authorization expired. Currently, it’s back.
“Is it a good idea? Absolutely. I mean, use them if you can," Binns said. "The issue is, unfortunately, is there's a bit of a shortage of [emergency medical service] proprietors statewide according to [the department of health], who’s seen about a 30% reduction in new applications coming in and new EMTs graduating from programs."
Binns said the state health department indicates a 30% reduction in applications for new EMTs. The other issues EMTs and paramedics face is the extended wait times to transfer over a patient to overloaded emergency rooms. It used to take about 25 minutes, but Binns said that's increasing.
“Lately because of the shortage of nurses in the ER, and the overcrowding in the ER, our wait times to turn over a patient are sometimes 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, and in some cases, two hours and more,” he said.
Binns said the lack of space is the another reason causing delays.
“The [emergency departments] are vastly overloaded, the wait times are increasing exponentially and the ambulances of being held up longer and longer," Binns said. "I really fear that someday, somebody's going to call 911 and the nearest available ambulance can be coming from quite a ways off with a couple of towns away. I fear for that person, someday."
He also said it’s a problem because ambulances always need to be freed up to answer the next emergency call. He recommended people who don’t have a serious illness call a family physician or go to an urgent care center.