CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Fire Department held a meeting at its training center Tuesday afternoon to address a shortage of paramedics.
Director of EMS Operations David Hodges said Charleston’s fire department in unique is that firefighters are also paramedics. He said that right now the department is facing a slight shortage.
“Statistically we are short on paramedics. We’re budgeted for 60 and currently we have 50 on the roster,” Hodges explained. “Three of them are on short term disability, and four more have administrative assignments so they’re not on the street as paramedics daily.”
He said that West Virginia often gets paramedics from Ohio. He insisted that despite the shortage, healthcare in Charleston is still better than what could be expected in most other cities.
“The healthcare right now is not in jeopardy in any way,” he said. “A good statistic we like to use here in Charleston is that if someone went into cardiac arrest here, there’s a 40 percent chance we’ll get your pulse back here on the street. The national average is 16 to 20 percent.”
Hodges thought an in-house training program would be beneficial to the program. The cost of sending a candidate to a paramedic class is close to $10,000 a person. Charleston hires for both standard firefighters and dual paramedic firefighters. Hodges also said Charleston’s heroin problem has caused the department problems.
“We all know what the epidemic is with heroin,” he said. “It’s stretching our resources thin. It’s taxing on everyone both financially and tying up our resources.”
West Virginia only produces about 50 paramedics a year, which he said gives Charleston a significantly lower pool to choose from.