On Wednesday in Altoona, the Shapiro administration launched an emergency assistance program for a profession whose purpose is to provide emergency assistance.

The effort includes a series of recruitment events for the Emergency Medical Services profession — starting with “EMS Night” Sunday at an Altoona Curve game — plus a pair of possible recruitment and retention programs funded by $6 million per year in the administration’s proposed 2025-26 budget.

The initiatives are designed to help EMS treat a widespread staffing shortage, according to Kristen Rodack, executive deputy secretary for the state Department of Health; Gary Watters, executive director of AMED, whose offices were the site of the news conference; and Jordan Anthony, director of the Southern Allegheny Regional EMS Council.

The $6 million that would be added to the state’s Emergency Medical Services Operating Fund would pay between $300 and $5,000 for reimbursement of EMS tuition costs for individuals; and up to $5,000 a year for agency recruitment and retention efforts, according to a news release.

The hope is that ambulance services will be able to find more people like Jim Musselman of Roaring Spring, who participated in the news conference.

Musselman actually self-recruited.

He’s taking a six-month course with the regional EMS Council from which he will graduate as an Emergency Medical Technician — higher than an Emergency Medical Responder, though lower than an Advanced EMT or paramedic.

Musselman has long wanted to become an EMT, like many of the ambulance workers he encounters at emergency scenes as chief of the Friendship Fire Company in Roaring Spring.

Musselman likes and respects those professionals, and the course has only deepened the respect.

He’s 45, the oldest student in his class, and the coursework isn’t easy, he said, noting it’s been a long time since he had to study anatomy.

But becoming an EMT will align with his desire to help people and be of public service, he said.

When he becomes an EMT, his presence in the profession will help mitigate the short-staffing struggles he witnesses among the ambulance workers at those accident scenes, he said.

Becoming an EMT is also a potential “bridge” to other areas of service, he said.

He has a full-time job as a salesman for Scott Electric, so the evening and weekend schedule for the EMS Council course was a key attraction.

AMED itself has an educational program featuring six-week EMT courses — for which students receive payment.

That is a key to attracting many — especially those who otherwise couldn’t give up their full-time jobs, according to Watters.

The state’s effort to overcome the EMS worker shortage is likely to benefit from the new societal trend in favor of the trades, Watters said.

Ambulance work provides “a good career, hands-on,” he said.

Ambulance workers need to be smart and good at figuring out how to solve problems that occur in getting patients out of their houses or out of a wrecked car and to get them lifesaving treatment and to the hospital — but they don’t need to go to college, he said.

Ambulance work is also a suitable second career, he said.

Half his students are aiming for that, he said.

“(But) it’s not a job for the weak,” Rodack said.

It means working nights, weekends and holidays, she said.

It also means going into “crappy situations” sometimes, Watters said.

“It’s challenging,” Rodack said.

But it’s rewarding — and worthy of the passion that many feel for the work, Rodack said.

One of the governmental challenges in supporting the profession is to provide “sustainable funding,” according to Rodack and others.

To that end, in 2023, the Shapiro administration used $20.3 million to boost Medicaid reimbursements for EMS to match what Medicare paid at the time — although those federal program reimbursements are still 25% to 30% below actual EMS costs, according to Watters.

Also, to that end, there is a bill currently in the General Assembly that would require private insurance companies to reimburse ambulance agencies for services according to a standard payment schedule, instead of just dictating what they’ll pay, as they do now, Watters said.