Here's how Bergen County helps towns during shortage of EMS crews

BERGEN COUNTY — The need for the recently created county-run emergency medical services is obvious, officials said, as crews answer more than 450 calls per month with no sign of things slowing down.

County officials formed the Bergen County EMS in February as a way to address a shortage of volunteers on the local level. The drop in volunteers, exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, has forced some emergency medical services to shut down. The county-run ambulances have picked up the slack.

The Bergen County Emergency Medical Service launched with two ambulances and quickly grew to eight.

The ambulances are stationed throughout the county and respond through a dispatch system that connects the closest ambulance to the patient, whether it's a hospital-run ambulance or one from a municipality.

Many municipalities have switched to per diem paid services to keep up with the lack of volunteers. Elmwood Park, Rochelle Park, Maywood, Bogota and North Haledon dissolved their volunteer ambulance corps services in recent years due to shortages.

Four ambulances are now stationed strategically throughout the county Monday through Friday, with three on the weekends.

"Long term, I would say Bergen County will be the primary provider for EMS services besides hospitals and some towns," County Executive Jim Tedesco said. "More and more EMS units are going out of service, and ambulance corps are disbanding on a regular basis. They might be able to get a crew one day, but not the next. it's not consistent."

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The county's emergency medical services unit was created with federal pandemic funding. "A lot of this started during the pandemic," Tedesco said. "A lot of EMS folks couldn't go out anymore because of exposure, and many never came back. The losses started happening in greater numbers."

Tedesco said he sees the program growing larger and including shared service agreements, especially with the municipalities. The 911 call would be taken by the county dispatch center and then the ambulance service would be sent.

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The county will look at how to bundle more ambulances permanently in areas that need them. Placing the ambulances where they will be needed the most is a challenge, Tedesco said.

Through the funding, the first ambulances and supplies to stock them were purchased to get them on the road. Employees were also first hired internally and then expanded to per diems. There are currently eight full-time employees, including two supervisors, two senior EMTs and four full-time EMTs, and 31 per diem.

Since the program went live on Feb. 9, it had responded to 3,272 calls as of Nov. 30. Those calls were to 67 of the 70 Bergen County municipalities, Bergen County Emergency Management Coordinator Capt. Matthew Tiedemann said.

"Everybody's manpower is low," Tiedmann said. "We know the areas that lack EMS services, and we focus on those. We aren't here to steal anyone's calls. We're just here to help. If a town's EMS gets dispatched to a call and another one comes in, we're here to supplement and help."

The services are subsidized now with insurance, Medicare or Medicade reimbursements. However, if someone does not have insurance, the county does not send a bill, Tiedemann said.

"That's the goal here, not to make money but provide lifesaving services to the people of Bergen County," Tedesco said. "I think the county government should help the local governments where they can't provide that."

Tedesco said the new service was up and running with a year of planning and has been "remarkable."

"I'm happy, but surprised with the call volume," he said. "It really shows how much of a need there really is with those numbers."

Besides expanding the EMS, Tedesco said, the county needs to look at the health care shortage across all medical fields. EMS members are in high demand, and he said the county competes to retain them.

"We have been working with getting younger people involved starting at the college level to get involved in joining the EMS and health care fields," Tedesco said.

The county's first EMS employee, Eddie Baldofsky Jr., 30, began working as a firefighter at 16 years old in Fair Lawn. After graduating from college, he joined the Bergen County Hazmat team and was certified as a hazmat technician. He later became certified as an EMS and was honored over the summer by the county as a first responder of the week.

"It's a great experience serving the entire county," Baldofsky said. "It's rewarding, and I'm grateful for what we're doing."

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: How Bergen County NJ deals with shortage of EMS crews