Guest commentary: Collier County EMS is alive and well

The following commentary was submitted by Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services Director Dan Summers in response to last week's story on EMS staffing shortages.

It is important for the citizens of Collier County to know that critical, life-saving assistance provided by their Emergency Medical Services (EMS) department has not been compromised by recent staff turnover or overtime issues.

Collier EMS has been going through some personnel changes and shortages. Three paramedics left during a nine-day period at the end of May and early June (not 12 as reported by the Collier Citizen).

Some of our EMTs have left to go to other counties where the college system is better geared for paramedic training programs. Some are joining fire and EMS organizations in nearby counties to be closer to their homes. This may have more to do with the availability of workforce housing in Collier County than the staffing and overtime issues raised by the two EMS employees quoted in your June 2 story that are or were members of the union negotiating team that is currently in contract talks with the county.

The staffing issue is not an isolated problem affecting only Collier County. EMS systems everywhere are being challenged by staffing shortages.

Collier EMS has experienced some mandatory overtime. While inconvenient, the load has been shared and reduced whenever possible, without compromise to service, skill, safety or unit availability.

During the month of May, there was 767 hours of overtime which is the equivalent of 32 shifts. However, only 29 of approximately 130 full-time employees at EMS worked any overtime and most were limited to a single shift.

We are faced with a competitive job market. Many fire districts that are hiring from the ranks of highly trained Collier County paramedics adjust salary schedules on what seems to be a monthly basis. Fire districts have also discovered that it is cheaper to hire certified paramedics who will assist with pre-hospital care and then train them as firefighters, than to do the opposite.

Collier County commissioners have been supportive of EMS. This year, the Board authorized four additional transport units with funding for new staffing. The county is not going to engage in a public dialogue over salaries and benefits, which seems to be the strategy being employed by the EMS union.

Furthermore, using scare tactics to try and improve the union's bargaining position is a disservice to the community.

Collier EMS paramedics are some of the best in the country. Nowhere has Collier EMS failed to maintain the highest standards in pre-hospital care. We continue to have one of the highest cardiac resuscitation rates in the country.

While your writer states that her calls were not answered, they in fact were answered. We provided as much information as we could but it is not our intent to negotiate a new EMS union contract in the media. I hope the rhetoric can be toned down as we work to meet the emergency medical needs of our community. I am very appreciative of the professionalism and dedication exhibited by our EMS responders on a daily basis. We will continue to fully support the work they do because, for many of our residents, it is a matter of life or death.