The Greene County Board of Supervisors recently approved increasing pay for full-time employees with the Greene County Ambulance Department.
Supervisor Vice Chair Dawn Rudolph admits when the Board took over operating the ambulance service some seven years ago, the Board didn’t know much about how to run that kind of department, and after a consultant was hired, it gave them a better idea of a direction toward paying the full-time employees an adequate salary.
“We’re not competitive with any of the surrounding counties, we lose employees, and this is a very, very important service to have for our county. I would hate to see that we did not have an ambulance service, and we need to step up to the plate, and we need to be competitive, and we need to make sure that we have good employees here, so that we can transport patients, and we can get ambulance services to those in need when they need it.”
The new salaries for paramedics saw an almost $4 hourly increase to $27, advanced Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are almost a $5 increase in pay from the top end of the scale to $25 per hour, and a basic EMT is brought up almost $8 from the top end of the scale to $23, depending on years of experience. Rudolph explains the justification for a sizable jump in the full-time salaries.
“With the changes made, I know people will question the increase in the salaries, but we’re saving on overtime, and we’ll be able to do transports, which brings in additional income. So overall, by raising these salaries, and cutting overtime, and doing the transports it will add revenue to our ambulance service.”
Rudolph adds that while the majority of the Board didn’t approve the high-end amounts that were recommended by the consulting firm, she feels the increases they did approve was a good compromise and should hopefully retain quality employees and attract more to the department. The final component is a 28E agreement between the Supervisors and Greene County Medical Center to transport patients to other medical facilities via the Ambulance Department.