Paramedics seek improved benefits
| • | Table: O'ahu emergency calls, responses |
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
In an effort to help deal with a paramedic shortage, city Emergency Medical Services Division workers are pushing a bill this legislative session that would give them the same minimum retirement benefits as police officers and firefighters.
Currently, paramedics must serve at least 30 years and reach 55 years of age before retiring with full benefits. Police, fire and water safety personnel can retire after 25 years of service.
If the measure passes, it would affect 200 paramedics and emergency medical technicians on O'ahu. A grassroots effort by 50 EMS rank-and-file members has been making the rounds at the Legislature this session in hopes of gaining lawmakers' support for the measure. A similar bill died last session.
City paramedics with 10 years experience or less make $35,784 annually. Kelly Fuentes, a 17-year city paramedic, and others are looking at ways at making the job more attractive to applicants.
"Raising the pay is one issue, but if we can improve the retirement status, anything that can help our plight would be great," said Fuentes. "We're hopeful that since our group only numbers 200, that they will be able to pass this without breaking the bank."
With 16 public ambulances stationed on O'ahu, paramedics say they feel stretched thin: Between July 1, 2001, and June 30, 2002, emergency medical technicians responded to 55,270 emergency calls, transporting 34,808 patients during those calls.
In recent years, many emergency medical technicians have worked overtime — including several 16-hour shifts a week — to make up for the paramedic deficit, according to Jane Greenwood, one of several Honolulu paramedics spearheading the legislative effort.
Greenwood said the staff shortage is at the level of paramedics who are allowed to give more advanced medical treatment to patients than those at the emergency medical technician stage.
Greenwood said it takes about two years for a emergency medical technician to attain paramedic status. After taking a semester course at Kapi'olani Community College, graduates then go on a minimum of 200 field calls as an emergency medical technician before taking a 17-month paramedic program.
Senate Labor Committee Chairman Brian Kanno, who introduced the Senate version of the bill, said paramedics feel they belong in the same class as police and fire when it comes to retirement benefits because they also respond to emergency situations.
"I think we're beginning to see similar issues for EMS personnel, as with police and fire," Kanno said. "They enter similar situations and deal with high levels of stress.
The counties are funded through state for their EMS programs, so the paramedics are kind of stuck in the middle when it comes to funding."
Greenwood said paramedics in their effort to treat people have entered crime situations such as stabbings and shootings, sometimes by chance, arriving at the scene before law enforcement officials. "Then we have to weave through traffic to get a person to a hospital, and deal with some drivers who are not courteous and don't move to the side," said the 10-year EMS veteran.
The Legislature is expected to take up the bill this week.
Kanno said police dispatchers and state sheriffs are pushing their own legislation this year in hopes of getting similar improvements in retirement benefits.
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