Audit finds Pittsburgh's Bureau of EMS facing 'significant' staffing challenges
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Pittsburgh City Controller released an audit of the Department of Public Safety's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services earlier this week and he found that they face "significant" staffing challenges.
Lamb's audit focused on the largest division of EMS, the ambulance division, and looked into its 2021 policies, procedures, and processes.
It found that staffing challenges remain significant as the department provides two-person ambulance crews to the city 24 hours per day, seven days a week. However, the lack of staffing caused personnel to work six extra hours, which would extend shifts to 18 hours.
That led to an increase in overtime costs as well as fatigue.
In 2021, EMS received a total of 83,901 dispatched calls, which averaged out is 229.87 calls per day and 17.68 calls per station per day.
That year, it took paramedics longer to reach cardiac emergencies and stroke patients than it did in 2012 and 2013.
However, despite all those statistics, Pittsburgh EMS outperformed both Pennsylvania and the country by around 7-percent for the overall survival of cardiac patients.
"Our medics are the best in the region, but they continue to leave and find less stressful work elsewhere," Lamb said. "We must continue to invest in our public safety apparatus, which means we invest in people. The city needs more paramedics."
Pittsburgh's Bureau of EMS was $1,046,285 over budget with most of it going to overtime.
You can find the full audit on the city's website at this link.