LOGAN COUNTY, Ark. — EMTs and paramedics in Logan County are feeling the strain while working long hours with not enough staff.
“It’s very tiring, the fatigue is there. We recently had a paramedic work a 120 shift, and within that time, he maybe got five hours of sleep on and off,” said Logan County EMT Chriss Yarborough.
Yarborough says that in total, 12 EMTs and four paramedics serve the entire county and a big portion of their workday is spent on the road transporting patients outside the area.
“If it’s to Fort Smith, that’s basically a three-hour turnaround. If we go to Little Rock it could be a six to seven-hour turnaround. We’ve had to go to Springfield, Missouri, or Tulsa, Oklahoma, that’s more than half a day,” she said.
Logan County Judge Ray Gack says recruiting paramedics and EMTs is tough due to a nationwide shortage. High demand has salaries on the rise which is hard for the county to compete with. He says its four paramedics are working 36-hour shifts.
“That’s not safe for the paramedic, that’s not safe for the patient, it’s not safe for anybody. We’re not doing them justice by doing that,” said Judge Ray Gack.
Gack says the county is trying to figure out how to fund long-term pay raises and avoid outsourcing to a private company, and that 40 years ago a tax was passed that was sold to the public as an EMS tax, while in reality, it was just a general-use tax.
According to Gack, the county sends out bills to people who use the ambulance service to pay what their insurance didn’t cover, but a lot of people send it back requesting to take it out of their EMS tax, even though that’s not how it works.
“I don't want to do away with our EMS service. I want to figure out a solution to the problem. If they give this raise, [it will only put a] bandaid on the problem. A long-term solution involves getting people interested in coming back to work here,” said Gack.
The Logan County Quorum Court will be discussing pay raises for these employees on Monday, June 12. The county judge asks anyone with suggestions or solutions to this issue to give him a call or come to the quorum court meeting.
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