EMS Leader Says Milwaukee Tragedy Highlights a Broader Crisis: ‘We’re Getting Overwhelmed’
By: Ben Jordan Posted at 5:07 PM, Feb 07, 2024 and last updated 8:04 PM, Feb 07, 2024
“This is something that’s been building up,” Alan DeYoung said.
MILWAUKEE — It’s an expectation when you call 911 that an ambulance is available to respond within minutes.
“This is something that’s been building up,” Alan DeYoung said.
But if you ask DeYoung, the fallout from the death of woman missed by a private ambulance company highlights a broader crisis in the EMS industry.
“We’re getting overwhelmed,” he said.
He says at the heart of the issue is not enough EMS staff and a growing number of calls for service. DeYoung says they’re up 21 percent statewide compared to five years ago.
“We have a huge workforce shortage and this is not like other industries. It’s not like fast food, it’s not like retail or anything like that. This is life and death. This is literally the industry of life and death,” he said.
DeYoung is the executive director of the Wisconsin EMS Association, an organization that represents nearly half of all EMS providers in the state, including Curtis Ambulance. They responded to Jolene Waldref’s 911 call, but didn’t see her lying on the sidewalk behind a snow bank. They medical examiner said she died of hypothermia.
“Do you think this tragedy should serve as a reason why private ambulance companies should be getting out of their ambulance no matter what?” TMJ4 reporter Ben Jordan asked.
“I’ve always said EMS is not trained in search and rescue, that’s what we have fire departments for, search and rescue,” DeYoung replied. “They’re trained in medical, they’re trained in clinical skills, life-saving skills so in terms of an expectation…. It’s hard to say that there’s really an expectation that they would get out of their vehicles or not.”
Here in Milwaukee, fire department paramedics are dispatched to emergencies where lives are in danger, from heart attacks and strokes to shootings and stabbings.
But like most large cities, DeYoung says Milwaukee greatly depends on private ambulance companies to respond to non-life threatening calls.
Just a few years ago, four private companies covered four different sections of the city. Now, only two are left, Bell and Curtis.
In 2023, city records show the Milwaukee Fire Department dispatched private ambulances to nearly 40,000 calls. A city contract document says each time costs Milwaukee $94, totaling up to $3.7 million.
DeYoung says the outsourcing is actually a cost savings measure for cities like Milwaukee. It also frees up M.F.D. resources for high priority calls.
But he tells TMJ4 the flat fee is often nowhere near enough to keep the private companies afloat.
“That’s not going to cover your gas for just making that trip, let alone the medical supplies, the training, the pay paying hourly, and how many false calls or false alarms, where somebody calls because they may not necessarily be in distress. But they need a ride to the hospital. Now you’re taking up an emergency,” he said.
DeYoung says the simple answer to making sure ambulance services are adequately provided in the future is more funding.
“It has to come from the state,” he said. “When the state says it has surplus in Medicaid, they have surplus in the general fund budget, they need to put that money toward this and we’ve been asking them to do it for years.”