As response times increase, EMS operations in Pennsylvania are in crisis
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — EMS operations across the state are in crisis.
Understaffed and underfunded, their resources are stretched so thin that response times are increasing and an ambulance may not arrive in a timely manner. When minutes count will they be there?
"Everyone deserves an ambulance," Trista Beary of Tionesta Ambulance said. "If that was my loved one who was hurt and needed an ambulance, I would want someone to respond."
In rural Forest County, there's only one part-time ambulance service, and Beary is one of only two EMTs who cover the many narrow and winding country roads. Because resources are so thin, tragedy has ensued.
Response times in rural counties can be as slow as an hour. Not timely enough to save those in cardiac arrest or those in serious accidents like 14-year-old Cameron Deihl, an Eagle Scout who bled from internal injuries waiting for an ambulance.
"We got him on the backboard. We got him in the ambulance and he passed right away," Forest County Commissioner Robert Snyder said.
Pennsylvania's EMS agencies are grossly underfunded and understaffed. The agencies struggle to adequately pay their EMTs and paramedics while maintaining their equipment. A patchwork quilt of more than 1,200 agencies, they're responding to 2.5 million calls a year, losing money on each one.
"Every time one of these ambulances pull out to go on a trip, we lose money," said Ken Bacha of Mutual Aid EMS.
Operations like Mutual Aid in Westmoreland County depend almost entirely on insurance reimbursements for transports to area hospitals, which cover only 60 percent of their ever-rising costs for equipment and staff. While operating millions of dollars in the red, 32 of the 33 towns Mutual Aid services give it no money at all.
Bacha: "We get no help from these municipalities. They name us as their provider. That's great. But we get no funding to support that."
KDKA-TV's Andy Sheehan: "They're on a free ride?"
Bacha: "Basically they are."
Buckling under the weight of those expenses, Jeannette EMS recently closed its bay door for good, and Mutual Aid has had to pick up that service area and its additional 1,800 calls a year. All of this is impacting public safety, as increased demand and shrinking resources equal longer response times.
Bacha: "They've gone up two minutes in the last couple of years."
Sheehan: "And two minutes is critical."
Bacha: "Absolutely."
That mirrors the strain across the state where, according to state data, the average response time has also increased in recent years from 15 minutes in 2018 to 17 minutes in 2021. Up in Forest County, the situation is beyond critical.
"Some people have taken to loading their loved one in a vehicle and drive as quick as they can to a hospital because they don't know if and when an ambulance is coming," said Snyder.
In Forest County, Snyder says some residents with heart conditions have moved. But at $15 an hour, officials are not finding many young EMTs like Beary, who is sustained by small victories, like recently saving a woman from the serious consequences of a stroke.
"We got her there in time and there were no deficits. So those are the moments that are rewarding. And you've got to take those ones and let them outweigh the bad ones," Beary said.
EMS chiefs across Pennsylvania are sounding the alarm, calling for funding and resources to stem the crisis and shore up medical emergency response in the state.