The future of Springfield Ambulance is in jeopardy

Area residents in need of emergency medical assistance may find themselves without familiar and longtime ambulance service providers due to a staffing shortage. 

During the last City Council meeting, members of the Springfield Ambulance shared a letter with council expressing their concerns about the future of the ambulance service.

“The Springfield ambulance crew members are coming here together tonight as we feel the future of our ambulance service is in jeopardy,” said ambulance service member, Erin Nelson, reading the letter to council. She continued saying, “We are walking a fine line with not being able to effectively serve our community plus the surrounding communities due to the critically low number of our crew members. The ambulance service must be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for which eight to nine people won’t be able to keep up with in the long term.” 

Our local ambulance service had eight staff members. Ideally they should have at least double that amount. This past week, they lost another staff member and what was already a severe situation has now turned critical. 

Nelson explained that the small crew stays because they are passionate about their work and serving their community. 

“We stay because a life may be saved, we stay because our community relies on us, “ Nelson said adding, ““We feel that we are failing our community. We are tired, we are stressed out, and we are running on fumes. We are trying our best, but we need help. The small crew that is left can only sustain the ambulance services for so long, we are getting burnt out.”   

She continued reading saying, “There may always be some type of ambulance service available to our community, but if things don’t change soon, it won’t be your own community members coming to your aid in a timely manner. Patient care will no doubt suffer. Response times will become lengthy. Precious minutes that could save a life will tick by when time is of the essence. Would the uncertainty of longer wait times be acceptable if it  were you or your loved one, your neighbor, your coworker or your friend in dire need of medical care?”, she asked concluding the letter saying, “The harsh reality is that if something doesn’t get done in the very near future, the Springfield Ambulance Service may not be in operation a year from now.”

City Manager, Amber Dale, explained to council that she has been working with Paula Thomas, Ambulance Supervisor, and Kevin Miller, Allina Health EMS Operations, to come up with a plan. 

Dale presented to council a proposal which would allow city staff members to voluntarily complete Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) training and respond to ambulance calls during their scheduled workday at their regular rate of pay with approval from the appropriate department head or city manager as scheduling allows. 

While council had a few questions regarding this proposal, they readily approved the plan. Council questions mostly revolved around on call pay. During city staff regular working hours, they will not receive on call pay and if they do get called out for an ambulance service call, they will receive their normal rate of pay, not the EMR or EMT pay. 

While allowing interested city staff to complete training and go out on calls, the Springfield Ambulance will still need more help and this could be a good opportunity for community members. 

“If there is anyone interested who is medically trained already, EMR, EMT, Paramedic, Nurses, etc. they may be able to assist the service with our immediate need for daytime shifts,” said Dale adding, “We have also decided to become more flexible in scheduling to accommodate people who may not have been able to commit to past requirements.”

In addition, the City of Springfield will pay for the EMR training classes in full; Dale is planning on getting daytime training classes held in Springfield with the classes beginning in January.  

Dale also plans on visiting with local businesses to ask if they will allow interested employees to join in the training and go out on calls during the work day. 

January’s training classes will have a limit of 10 students. It would be amazing if they could fill every one of those spots. 

“Serving on the ambulance is an opportunity for you to become more prepared in an emergency situation. We hope nothing ever happens to our kids, our parents, our coworkers, but we will all experience a serious medical situation at some point. We need to be prepared whether it is you responding to your own child, employees trained and experienced at your workplace, or the Springfield Ambulance Service staff responding,” Dale concluded. 

The City’s duty pay rate for EMR is $14 per hour and EMT is $18 per hour when out assisting on a call with $5 per hour pay for anytime you are waiting to be called out. 

Anyone who is interested in taking the classes or learning more, contact Amber Dale at 507-723-3500 or amber.dale@springfieldmn.org or Paula Thomas at 507) 723-3523  or paula.thomas@springfieldmn.org.