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AMED is experiencing the same manpower-shortage pressures that many area volunteer fire departments have been dealing with for more than a few years.
Fortunately for AMED, the ambulance service still is able to describe its manpower status as "flat" rather than critically deficient.
Numerous volunteer fire services in this region would feel fortunate if they could justify using AMED's description rather than being much more hard-pressed to have enough firefighters available most times when a call is received.
For volunteer fire units, the future portends to be uncertain well into the years ahead.
Gone are the days when volunteer fire departments thrived, thanks in part to families that provided generations of their men who were dedicated to protecting their communities.
Men of many of those families worked in close proximity to their community of residence or, in general, had to deal with fewer pressures than today's adults, enabling them to be active firefighting participants.
Many of today's workers don't enjoy such luxuries, resulting in fewer who are able or willing to give up what limited time they have available to answer fire calls any hour of the day or night.
More and more, women are joining the volunteer firefighting ranks in an attempt to ease the shortages, but their limited numbers have so far been unable to resolve the existing challenges, and that probably will continue.
For AMED, which is not a volunteer service, its staffing difficulties are of a different nature because of the level of training involved and its limitations regarding compensation and benefits.
Many individuals opt for more lucrative and less-stressful occupations, many of which involve fewer pressures in general and don't involve life-or-death-type responses, actions and decisions.
But such individuals are critical to a community's well-being, in this case Altoona and its environs. Something must be done to build AMED's manpower ranks, rather than to allow those ranks to remain flat.
To its credit, AMED has decided to use roving medics as one solution for its manpower woes. An article in the Mirror's Aug. 22 edition provided details of that move, also about the vehicles and equipment that will be used to make that service work efficiently and expertly.
Quoting from that article:
"Under the policy, paramedics ride in regular SUVs with all the equipment needed to treat patients but without gurneys for transporting them to the hospital, giving the organization flexibility to send the paramedics to high-priority calls, when they might otherwise be tied up with ambulances at scenes where emergency medical technicians are sufficient."
That quote was from Gary Watters, AMED executive director.
However, the article provided no window into possible solutions to the manpower shortages; it appears that that challenge should be addressed elsewhere, such as in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.
Perhaps a committee or task force should be appointed by the Legislature to examine possible ideas related to boosting manpower, such as providing financial or education incentives.
The bottom line is AMED has 22 paramedics, about 30% fewer than ideal. Those individuals and the AMED leadership do a fantastic job, despite less-than-ideal-sized roster.
Solving the paramedic dilemma must be Priority One, nevertheless. Hopefully, someone in Harrisburg will notice.