No rest for weary medics prompts change, some ‘gripes’ at Charleston County EMS

[46Young]

http://www.postandcourier.com/artic...e-x2018-gripes-x2019-at-charleston-county-ems

Anyone who has read my posts about Charleston County EMS can see that I found their 24/48 (no Kellys) schedule tiring, especially with frequent 12-24 hour forced OT (holdover/recall). I'm happy to see that they finally did away with those undesirable work hours. Basically, a 56 hr/week employee is now a 42 hr/week employee. If a Crew Chief got $46k/yr to start, their base pay went from less than $14/hr to over $20/hr. Shifts are capped at 16 hrs as well, same as NYC law. No more 36-48 hr shifts!

 

[DrParasite]

As anyone who has followed my posts on 24 hours shifts, they are great for slow trucks, when you get to spend downtime in your station and get some sleep. Based on the article, it would seem like Charleston County EMS is absurdly busy to run 24 hour shifts. I would hate to run my butt off on a 24 hr shift, and then get forced for another 12 or 24....

But they are still running 12 calls in 12 hours (ie, back to back calls all night). No down time, even with 12 hour shifts. It's better than running for 12 straight, but your still going to run their crews into the ground. It also means they don't have any surge capacity built it; if their routine call volume has them not seeing their station for more than half their shift, and them still going on back to back calls (as the article is written), then I wonder how well they will handle the MCI (bus accident, explosion, GSW or stabbing with 3+ victims), and still maintain decent response times.

I also think it's stupid to cap them at 16 hours (i've done a busy 18, it's not too bad). NYC caps people at 16 because their normal shifts are 8 hours in length; I think making it 18 hours (ie, one and a half shifts) at the scheduled cap would be better, with a max shift work would be 24 hours in a row (last minute fill in), with mandatory 12 hours off. But that's just me.

What they really need (and the article says they did this, kinda) is more units on the road. they need more staff. In an ideal world, I would much rather them put on another 45 to 60 employees, and staff additional 24 hour units (maybe even putting two trucks in one station), so crews could get a break, lower their UHU to a better number to retain good employees, and when you did get hit with those surges, you have the built in staffing to actually handle the call volume. But the world isn't ideal, and until you find a director who can convince the powers that be that having a more rested and larger EMS fleet has it's advantages (like many of the FDs have already done), it probably won't happen.

Well, that's not true: my director did just that, and now those 24 hour shifts are in high demand, although we give people 72 hours off between shifts, not just 48. 24/72 vs 12 hour shifts: same amount of people needed, but better on the employee, especially if you aren't running 20+ calls in those 24 hour shifts.