Editorial: S.C. County Should Adjust Paramedic Pay Scale

Oct. 14--Two new Beaufort County ambulances are ready to hit the road. Other ambulances have been revamped. And all in the county's active fleet now feature state-of-the-art chest-compression devices that can perform CPR on a patient without interruption and more consistently than a paramedic.

There's just one big problem. The county lacks 12 paramedics to staff the vehicles.

It's a challenge that communities around the country are facing. While paramedics perform critical functions that can literally mean the difference between life and death, they don't earn very much. Here in Beaufort County, emergency medical technicians and paramedics make between $11.69 and $13.69 hourly, depending on their level of certification.

County officials have had little luck thus far, advertising the vacancies in nationally distributed medical journals and online.

The county should consider an adjustment to its pay scale for paramedics and EMTs. An extra budget appropriation would require approval from Beaufort County Council.

We think it's worth serious consideration. The county has made great strides in improving emergency services in the last few years. It should not lose momentum and backtrack.

Following a 2010 review that found the county provides a "sound level of service," county leaders took to heart the accompanying list of dozens of recommendations on how to improve the department.

In addition to the new and improved vehicles, EMS cut the average time it took to get units out of their stations in half -- from two minutes to one. The department also changed the way dispatchers communicate. And new computer software replaced a 20-year-old system and has helped integrate all first-responders and medical providers.

At last check, EMS response times (from when a call is answered to when emergency crews arrive on the scene of an emergency) are 10 minutes and 53 seconds. That was in 2010. That average has declined slightly since, according to county leaders.

But that trend won't continue, particularly considering the county's growing population, if paramedics cannot be hired and retained. Emergency responders play a critical role in county government. If it's a matter of money, it's worth spending.

Copyright 2014 - The Island Packet (Hilton Head Island, S.C.)