Warning Lights: EMTs Respond to Proposed Tightening of State Regulations

Volunteer emergency medical technicians in Fanwood and Scotch Plains are worried that they will lose members and find it difficult to recruit new ones due to a bill currently being debated in the New Jersey Assembly and Senate.

The bill aims to tighten regulations of the state's emergency medical services, which were described as in a "state of near crisis" by a 2007 Department of Health and Senior Services report. Among other things, the bill proposes an increase in training for volunteer EMTs (from 110 hours to between 150 and 190) and that two EMTs must ride in every ambulance (rather than one EMT and a trained driver). 

Already, the Scotch Plains and Fanwood squads require that two EMTs be present for every call. The squads' officers, meanwhile, acknowledged that the training will create better-trained EMTs. But they added that the more stringent training requirements could also drive away potential volunteers.

"We're not against additional training, but you have to make other incentives to get people to do 110 hours," Fanwood Rescue Squad president Tom Kranz said in a telephone interview. "The bottom line is that the intent is all about jacking up responsibility for better patient care. But it could make it difficult to attract new volunteers."

New Jersey's EMS is reliant on volunteers. According to figures quoted by the New Jersey State First Aid Council, which opposes many of the provisions in the bill, "Currently, in more than 80 percent of New Jersey, when someone calls for an ambulance, volunteers respond."

Kranz said that volunteer emergency medical services across New Jersey are already finding it difficult to find sufficient volunteers to cover the shifts. Frequently, the emergency call is turned over to a private ambulance service, leaving the patient with a bill for a few hundred dollars.

The irony, according to Captain Dan Sullivan of the Scotch Plains Rescue Squad, is that there are more people volunteering these days, but they are willing to volunteer for less time than before.

"People are busier these days," he said in a telephone interview. "Ten, fifteen years ago, we had 35 to 45 members, and those people answered twice as many calls as people do today. Now we have more people volunteering" – he puts the figure in Scotch Plains at around 80 volunteers – "but they are doing so for less time."

This naturally has a great impact on the training and the experience of EMTs.

"There's less continuity," Sullivan said. "We have people coming in once a week rather than two or three times a week."

With less time in the ambulance, volunteer EMTs benefit from more classroom time. But Sullivan worries that this added training requirement will turn people away from volunteering.

"It really depends on your motivation," he said. "I started this 40 years ago. I didn't expect to be doing it 40 years later, but it's in your blood. But there are people doing it for other reasons. I think you're going to lose those people."

Sullivan's suggestion is not to make such sweeping changes.

"I think there are things that have to be fixed," he said. "But we have to look at incentives. There should be a reason to volunteer. Those volunteers that are working now are getting nothing.

"People used to volunteer a lot, but now many are jumping to the paid side." 

Kranz said he agrees that such a major set of changes will do more damage than help. "It may need a more incremental approach," said Kranz. "It will require some blending of the volunteer and paid services across the state." 

Editor's Note: Alan Neuhauser is a member of the Fanwood Rescue Squad. Accordingly, this piece was edited by Westfield Patch editor John Celock.