By Bill Carey
EMS1
PORTLAND, Ore. — AMR in Portland is proposing changing its staffing from two paramedics to a paramedic and an EMT to put more ambulances on the streets, but the Multnomah County Health Department is not on board with the change.
The Northwest Vice President of Operations, Randy Lauer, said his team is proposing a shifting model from two paramedics on every call in Multnomah County. Multnomah County Health Operations Manager Aaron Monnig said they are not considering the change right now, KATU reported.
“Our response times are very substandard because we’re probably short of eight to 10 ambulances a day of where we want to be, but we just don’t have enough paramedics to staff them,” Lauer said.
“We believe that there is a spot to use EMTs in the system, but we have a difference in how we want to use those. We think that it would be better to use those on two EMT Basic Life Support ambulances,” Aaron Monnig said.
Currently, a paramedic still must respond to a call, and only then can they deploy a Basic Life Support Ambulance from there.
“There are a small number of calls that are critical patients where you need those two paramedics on scene working together,” Monning said.
Lauer said if 911 operators could directly dispatch BLS ambulances with EMTs instead of a paramedic first vetting those patients, which could also have a major impact on response times.