Short staff shuts ambulance unit for 8 hours

A shift of a downtown Honolulu Emergency Medical Services Division ambulance crew was shut down last weekend. This was what a recent change in scheduling policies was designed to prevent.

But EMS spokeswoman Shayne Enright said the shift closure was a rare occurrence. She also said the shortage of paramedics and emergency medical technicians otherwise appears to be easing.

The Charlie 1 unit, located at Kuakini Medical Center, was closed from midnight to 8 a.m. Sunday because no one was available to take the shifts as a result of vacations, family leave and other reasons, Enright said. "It wasn’t any one thing that came out of the blue," she said.

The two people scheduled to work the ensuing noon Sunday-to-midnight Monday shift were asked whether they would volunteer to go in four hours early, and they did, she said.

From midnight to 8 a.m. Sunday, five nearby stations helped cover the area, Enright said. The town units averaged only about four calls each during those eight hours, lower than usual for an early Sunday, she said.

Sunday’s shutdown was the first time a station had to be closed since EMS shifted scheduling at the beginning of September with agreement from the United Public Workers union.

In recent years EMS has had to shut down stations periodically due in large part to a shortage of EMTs and paramedics, burnout and mandatory overtime.

On Sept. 1 most paramedic and EMT schedules were converted to 12-hour shifts three to four days a week from the previous eight-hour, five-day shifts in a move designed to keep EMS personnel fresher through shorter workweeks and cut down on both absenteeism and mandatory overtime.

No EMTs or paramedics resigned from their jobs in September, Enright said, and there were no mandatory overtime shifts during that time.

EMS has 15 vacant EMT positions, and interviews for potential hires are scheduled for next week, she said. She noted that a Kapiolani Community College EMT training class, which typically has 18 to 24 students, is finishing up and will be eligible for those positions.

At the beginning of September, the division had 28 EMT vacancies, but those were reduced by the hiring of 13 EMTs.