An executive summary on a study of the Florence County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was released during a Florence County Council meeting Wednesday morning.
Council members decided a study was needed after several problems with EMS.
The 74 page summary was conducted by Emergency Services Consulting International (ESCI).
About 15 employees have left EMS since December of 2011, leaving the department understaffed.
A couple employees retired and others left for different reasons, including going to work as paramedics at area hospitals.
The summary gives some insight as to why the department may be experiencing such great turnover.
Researchers found one way to lower the turnover is to increase salaries across all pay grades within EMS.
It says the current salary range for an EMT-Paramedic personnel with Florence County EMS is $6,000 below the regional average and $3,000 below the national average based on available data.
The summary says from a percentage perspective, this equates to a departure of between 8 to 16 percent for paramedics, 18 and 32 percent for EMT-Intermediates and 18 to 28 percent for EMT-Basics.
In August, EMS Director Ryon Watkins strongly presented several options to council members to address the problems.
Option one was to do absolutely nothing and let the situation continue to spiral out of control. He says if council goes with option one, eventually they may have to shutdown some EMS stations.
Option two includes an across the board salary increase for employees of 40 to 50 percent. The salary increases could cost the county $1.2 million a year.
Watkins says this would be good for his workers, but would do nothing to address the underlying issues of employees' work schedule.
Watkins strongly recommended council choose option three. It includes adding a fourth shift consisting of 15 full-time employees with hiring an additional 12 new workers.
"We have identified three positions internally that we can transfer to this new shift which would require us to hire 12 new employees. My recommendation is to transition to a modified 24 on 72 off schedule," explained Watkins.
He says he is currently reviewing the summary and hopes it will make a difference and improve his department.
"I hope that we're going to end up with a better schedule for our employees and more ambulances on the road to serve the citizens of the county."
Council officials haven't given a timeline as to when the full study will be released.
