Essex County EMS Strategic Plan Update: Looking to the Future after Five Years of Progress
CGR was engaged to conduct a follow up study to evaluate the changes since a 2017 strategic plan was enacted. Since then, there has been significant progress around dispatching, establishing a county EMS service, improving education and setting response targets. Service. Local EMS services have also increased paid staffing. Despite these advancements, key issues remain including recruiting and retaining paid staff and volunteers, the impending sunset of the AEMT-Critical Care certification, administrative burdens on volunteers, funding sustainability, and optimizing employee downtime. The county's EMS system, handling approximately 15 daily calls, faces a $6.8 million annual cost, largely borne by non-profit ambulance companies and the towns they serve. To address these challenges, the report recommends actions like expanding staff scheduling, ensuring ALS dispatch for high-priority calls, developing retention strategies, lobbying for a county-level EMS district, creating a dedicated EMS coordinator position, exploring new funding sources, expanding advanced EMT care, supporting paramedic transitions, implementing youth recruitment, and using medic exchange programs. The report also highlights the need for performance dashboards, distance learning for training, and identifying productive uses for employee downtime.
Report Date: Dec 2024
Author(s): Paul Bishop
, Alina Santiago
, Katherine Bell
Subject(s): Strategic Planning
, Government Reorganization/Dissolution
, Health
Location: Essex, New York