LifeCare staffing improves with more EMT students entering the workforce

For the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, LifeCare ambulance services staffing is up, according to Steve Frisbie, vice president for Emergent Health Partners SW Region/LifeCare Ambulance.

“Western Calhoun County, including Battle Creek, will be fully staffed and probably overstaffed by the end of the month,” he told the Branch County 911 board Wednesday.

The improvement in staffing comes as new graduates enter the workforce and a neighboring EMS agency shuttered.

LifeCare still needs five or six employees in Branch County and six or seven in its St. Joseph County service area.

“It really has gone from bleak to tolerable pretty rapidly in the last six to eight months,” Frisbie said.

With Pride Ambulance closing in Kalamazoo County, Frisbie said many of those staff came to work for LifeCare in Calhoun County.

Frisbie said emergency medical technician classes through Kellogg Community College in both Coldwater and Battle Creek are helping train EMTs.

Prior story You may be in for a wait if you need an ambulance in Branch County

More staffing reduces response times which were often critically slow in 2021 and early 2022. In some instances, wait times for ambulances rose to a half hour or more. 

Since last fall, 12 area residents have completed EMT training. Seven are working for LifeCare and four are pending licensure.

LifeCare paid stipends to each in the fall 2022 and spring 2023 terms.

Three of those trained are working in Branch County. Two more are scheduled when they receive licenses.

Some KCC slots went to students from the southeast part of the state. That left area students on a waiting list until this summer and fall classes. “So it’s not quite as rewarding as we would hope, but it’s progress,” Frisbie said.

Prior story KCC provides paramedic training scholarships to help meet shortage

Frisbie said, “The people we’ve retained throughout the last three, four years, have been rock solid employees. They are really grateful now that there have some coworkers to help share some of the workload.”

The employee retention came with a 20% pay hike last fall. EMTs now start around $40,000 a year and increase into the $50,000 range. Paramedics make over $80,000.

A number of the EMTs are taking advantage of a Kellogg Community College $350,000 grant to train 18 paramedics to fill the critical need in Michigan, Frisbie said.   

Two EMTs operate a Basic Life Support ambulance. A paramedic is needed for Advance Life Support units.

Frisbie said BLS units would continue to operate “because we can put them on lower priority calls, and inter facility transports that don’t involve really critical patients. We reserve the ALS trucks for those really sick patients.”

For the last six to eight months, ALS units operated as the second unit in Branch County, Frisbie said.

For optimal service in Branch and St. Joseph counties, Frisbie said, “Fully staffed during the day into the evening, we’re at three units. Over the nighttime period, we’re at two. We’ve always been able to make a response time requirements with that.”

Prior story Bronson Fire receives 'safety net' ambulance

Bronson Fire Department and Tri-Township Fire in Fawn River, Sherman and Sturgis townships each staff a “safety net ambulance.” LifeCare provides the Bronson unit. Tri-Township bought its own.

If a LifeCare ambulance is unavailable for emergency transport to a hospital, LifeCare can activate the “safety net” unit and authorize medical first responders to transport the patient under its license. 

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LifeCare Ambulance is a nonprofit EMS serving all of Branch County. The company serves portions of St. Joseph except for Sturgis and Three Rivers, where fire departments provide ambulance and EMS services.

The company serves western Calhoun County and parts of Berrien, Kalamazoo, Barry and Eaton counties.

---Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DReidTDR

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: LifeCare staffing improves with EMTs graduations