NORTHFIELD — The Northfield Emergency Medical Services (EMS) team has worked for years to expand its services, recently implementing a new staffing model with two emergency medical technicians (EMTs) or paramedics scheduled 24 hours per day.
“We have been a 24-hours-a-day service since transport was implemented in 2010, but we relied on volunteers to respond to calls,” Northfield EMS Chief Mark Fortier explained.
For the past several years, Northfield EMS had been staffed with a single person for just eight hours per day. When a call would come in, Fortier said this lone person would have to hope a volunteer would be available and respond to the call — an ambulance is required to have at least two EMTs to provide emergency services. During the other 16 hours of the day, Northfield EMS had needed to rely strictly on volunteers to respond from home.
The new staffing model was implemented on July 1.
“Over the course of time we added paid staff, compensating people to be on-call,” Fortier said.
The town of Northfield recently added funding to the EMS Enterprise Fund, as EMS had been self-sufficient by relying on funding from insurance money provided for transport. Fortier said the department is taking some of the anticipated revenue to pay for staff, with enough money budgeted to pay a paramedic a full hourly rate, approximately $19 an hour, for 16 hours a day. For someone to be on-call for an 8-hour shift, they would be paid half that hourly rate.
Northfield EMS is now aiming to have two EMTs or paramedics scheduled all 24 hours of the day. For 16 of those hours, someone will work from the EMS station, while the other eight hours of the day will see EMS members scheduled on-call. However, Fortier said some of the EMS members choose to spend their on-call hours at the station, meaning it is often staffed for the full 24 hours.
While the change in staffing is an improvement, Fortier noted that it is not a complete solution as it still relies on volunteers to pick up shifts. While Northfield EMS may have the money to pay hourly rates for volunteers, at the end of the day, there may just not be someone available to work, as many EMTs and paramedics are committed to their full-time employers. He noted that occasional gaps in the schedule where no one is available still occur, but these gaps are easier to predict.
“Unfortunately, volunteer staffing is not a sustainable model,” Fortier said.
Despite a decline in volunteerism, Northfield EMS keeps growing its commitments, acting as the primary ambulance for Bernardston. Fortier said his department is on track to respond to approximately 450 calls this year.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264.