Ambulance Service In North Texas Offering New Incentives For EMTs, Paramedics To Deal With Shortages – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

DALLAS and FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – A shortage of paramedics and ambulance workers is forcing companies to introduce new incentives to keep ambulances manned.

Acadian Ambulance Services in Dallas announced that it will cover the cost of training new applicants and pay them $ 11 an hour as they complete the eight-week course.

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The offer comes after Acadian and other services put current employees on overtime and pulled employees back on the streets to make sure patient transports stay on track.

A presentation by the Texas Department of Health in October showed that the number of trained workers who had worked in an ambulance in 2021 had decreased by a third since 2020, despite the fact that there were more people certified to do the work.

“We had to take a raise, and we did, and the response has been great, but it takes more than good pay to keep a good employee,” said Lauren Ramos of Acadian.

MedStar, which handled 911 shipments in Fort Worth, said while the shortage of paramedics was a problem nationwide, its overall cast has never been better.

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Also, this year the company increased pay by 12% to get there and adjusted its service model to use EMTs to staff more ambulances to meet the paramedic shortage.

The Fort Worth Fire Department started a recruiting course Monday with 34 new recruits and said they are also good at handling work problems.

However, fire departments are one of the career opportunities trained paramedics and paramedics can often seek to develop further, which leaves transportation companies looking for new people. Instead of lamenting this twist, recruiters are now using it as a selling point.

“You start somewhere,” says Ross Glaub, a recruiter at Acadian. “There are doctors who drove ambulances early in their careers to study medicine.”

Acadian is trying to get applicants for its next Dallas course by December 23rd.

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Classes are expected to continue each quarter, despite a company employee saying he wanted to hire as many people as possible given the current situation.

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Ambulance Service In North Texas Offering New Incentives For EMTs, Paramedics To Deal With Shortages