By Marcia Moore
LEWISBURG — A move to enhance the level of care offered by ambulance services in Mifflinburg, Milton and Watsontown will cost nine full-time emergency medical technicians their jobs in the new year.
As of Jan. 1, nine EMTs will be terminated and five paramedics hired to staff ambulance services in the three communities, according to Nicholas Klose, director of Evangelical Community Hospital’s Pre Hospital Services department.
This will leave the ambulance services with 18 full-time EMTs and 20 full-time paramedics, he said.
Klose said this type of “realignment of services” has taken place in communities across the country as a way of enhancing care offered to residents and preventing duplication of services.
“Unfortunately it’s a reduction in EMTs,” he added.
Paramedics are certified in advanced life support and able to offer a higher level of care, including providing medications, cardiac monitoring and giving fluids intravenously. EMTs are certified in basic life support, allowing them to bandage wounds, give oxygen and assist with some medications.
A paramedic is required by law to be on the scene for most ambulance calls, and Klose said the realignment will limit the chances that a paramedic from another location will be called out to meet the ambulance.
Stacy Mast, captain of the Mifflinburg Community Ambulance Association, said residents will benefit from the changes.
Presently, the ambulance company contracts with the hospital services department to have two EMTs on call 24 hours a day. Starting in January, there will be one EMT and a paramedic available at all times.
This means a higher quality of care at a cheaper rate to residents who won’t have to pay separately for the ambulance and a paramedic, Mast said.
The downside is that with the addition of the paramedic, the Mifflinburg ambulance service’s territory will be expanded to include New Berlin and parts of Snyder County.
