Shall the Board of Directors of the St. Clair Ambulance District be authorized to levy an additional tax of not more than thirty-five cents per one hundred dollar assessed valuation to maintain and increase the staffing of emergency medical services to the St. Clair and Lonedell areas?
What are the major concerns?
What are we trying to accomplish with this request?
What are the level of care we can provide?
To the great citizens of the St. Clair Ambulance District,
We are announcing that Proposition Saving Lives will be on the ballot on November 5, 2024. The request will ask the citizens to vote yes or no to increase our funding by .35 cents per $100 assessed evaluation. The St. Clair Ambulance District (SCAD) has been proudly serving its citizens for the last 50 years. Emergency Medical Services has changed in that time, and we have become a necessary part of healthcare in the community. Paramedics are now the critical part of the chain of survival in emergency medicine.
It is our job to provide the necessary services that meet the needs of the community. After years of evaluation and discussion. We have concluded that the district no longer meets the needs of the community with the funding that we are provided. We are unable to attract Paramedics. In the last 5 years the district has been unavailable to respond to your emergencies nearly 500 times a year for hours at a time, creating potentially long response times to your call for help. The district is no longer competitive with pay and benefits, topped with the dwindling pool of Paramedics.
Why are we repeating this request?
1. In the last two years our situation has not improved. Our inability to attract paramedics due to low starting pay ($17.00 per hour full time) and keep paramedics employed while surrounding districts salaries and benefits grew beyond our ability to match and remain competitive. We have had 3 Full-Time Paramedics resign in the last 26 months, losing familiar faces, excellent care, and 27 years of combined experience serving our citizens. In those 2 years, we have been unable to hire a qualified Paramedic to replace those positions. EMT’s (Emergency Medical Technicians) are a great asset to departments, however you can only have a few or you lose the ability to treat patients with Advanced Life Support services (ALS). Paramedics are the ALS healthcare provider. Their license allows them to treat with medications in cardiac care, pain management, airway management, pediatric care, stroke management, trauma care, and so much more.
2. We are unable to staff 3 ambulances every day. The district should always be dependent on a minimum of 3 staffed ambulances due to the amount of emergency calls that we receive every day. We simply cannot afford to hire the 4 additional positions. The previous Tax increase in 1999 was intended to serve the district with 2 full-time ambulances and has done so since. In 2008, the sales tax rollback gave us the funding to staff a 3rd ambulance with part time personnel. Though we deeply appreciate and are grateful for our part-time employees, they do not guarantee a staffed ambulance because they are not held to a full-time schedule. Part-time personnel may or may not be available to work. In the 2024 year to date we have been unable to staff 3 ambulances 90 full 24-hour days (of the last nine months) resulting in only two ambulances available for emergencies.
3. Our dependency on neighboring districts is extremely high with our call volume. The emergency calls have increased from 2000 calls per year in 2016 to 3500 in 2023. This is a result of only having 2 full-time ambulances staffed with a paramedic 65% of the time. Nearly 500 instances per year over the last 5 years where the ambulances were already on emergency calls and neighboring districts responded to our district.
Our goals are to provide the best care in the worst of moments and to attract new and experienced paramedics to replace those that leave. We want to have the ability to staff all three of our ambulances with full time employees and staff a 4th ambulance in Lonedell with a combination of part-time employees and full-time employees to improve the Lonedell area response times. We understand the burden of tax’s on our citizens and would not ask to increase it unless it was necessary. The loss of attracting paramedics will eventually lead to a district that provides an ambulance without a paramedic.
St. Clair Ambulance District operates within our budget each year. We have reserve funds for equipment, vehicles, and maintenance that would happen to exceed our budget. Proposition “Saving Lives” is about staffing. To provide the staff that responds when you have an emergency and need a paramedic, one that can give lifesaving medications. Should you have questions please email Chief Tiepelman at scad9700@gmail.com or call 636-629-2216.
Please reach us at scad9700@gmail.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
We are no longer getting paramedics applying at the district. It has been over two years since we hired a paramedic for an open position and we currently have 2 open positions.
Currently we have 9 Paramedics and 4 EMT’s out of 15 positions (must staff 6 to keep the two ambulances Advanced Life Support with an EMT partner). The current staffing goal is to have 12 Paramedics and 3 EMT’s and we have had two open positions in the last two months. We have not had a Paramedic apply since our last one was hired in July of 2022. In that time, we have lost 5.
EMT’s and Paramedics have different state licenses and education. EMT’s are trained in basic CPR and assessment, they can assist paramedics and their primary role on the ambulance is driving. Paramedics provide Advanced Life Support; includes medication administration, cardiac care, pain management, airway management, pediatric care, stroke management, trauma care. The education requirement is significantly different.
How many FT paramedics do you feel you need to fully staff?
The proposed plan would create 4 additional FT paramedic positions. Those positions will fill our current operation with 3 FT Ambulances as well as an additional Paramedic/Training Officer Position will not be an administrative position, they will be a member of the staff and work on the ambulances as well as a Training Coordinator. The part time staff will be moved to the 4th staffed ambulance (PT ambulance could and likely be a mixture of full-time staff and part time ensuring coverage during peak hours).
As I have advertised 3 fully staffed ambulances is the minimum to reduce dependency on neighboring districts. The 4th ambulance in Lonedell station will significantly reduce our neighbors responding to our district almost completely during peak hours of call volume. Which in turn keeps our ambulance close to emergencies in the area.
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