86 | www. Char l es tonPhys i c i ans . com | www.Hea l thL i nksChar l es ton . com In early October 2022, Columbia resident Julianna Fisher jumped into an emergency responder vehicle with a seasoned paramedic and rushed off on her first medical call. Fisher had been on the job only a week as a brand-new emergency medical technician, but now she was speeding across Richland County with a siren wailing overhead – and as vehicles parted to let them pass, she felt her entire being growing tenser by the second as she hoped and prayed they would not arrive too late. “My very first call was an overdose. There was so much going on, and the next thing I knew I was bagging the patient and keeping him alive on our way to the hospital,” Fisher said. “The paramedic with me was so calm, but I knew my eyes were as big as Jupiter – and it was the biggest adrenaline rush I have ever felt.” Despite her early anxiety, Fisher came through the moment with the satisfaction of helping to save someone’s life in a crisis. While she has gotten used to being taken for granted by people who need her help, Fisher is now in the position of being one of a dwindling number of people in the emergency medical field throughout South Carolina and the United States. Unless the trend reverses before the end of the decade, responses to medical emergencies will continue to take longer, raising the possibility that, in many cases, help will not arrive in time. “Our nation’s EMS system is facing a crippling workforce shortage, a long-term problem that has been building for more than a decade,” said Shawn Baird, president of the American Ambulance Association, in a 2021 letter to congressional leaders. “Overall turnover among paramedics and EMTs ranges from 20% to 30% annually.” He added that this high percentage not only indicates 100% turnover in ambulance services over a four-year period, it means fewer responders like Fisher. “Staffing shortages compromise our ability to respond to health care emergencies,” Baird stated in the letter, “especially in rural and underserved parts of the country.” EMS SYSTEM FACES AN EMERGENCY SITUATION By L. C. Leach III
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjcyNTM1