By Robert J. Roberts
Reproduced from Sunday, Feb. 27, 2000 edition of The Spectator with permission

WAYLAND - The men and women who provide ambulance service to rural Steuben and Livingston counties agree on one point: more volunteers are needed.

Attracting new volunteers, and retaining those who currently serve on Emergency Medical Services ambulance squads, were the crucial points that emerged repeatedly Saturday morning during a review of a special survey of Steuben and Livingston ambulance officials.

The so-called "EMS Town meeting," held in Wayland-Cohocton Central School, drew ambulance volunteers and government officials from several counties. The centerpiece of the meeting was the survey of 169 volunteer ambulance officials and corps members; the polling was sponsored by Rural Health Community Systems, serving Steuben County, and the Genesee Valley Health Network in Livingston counties.

"This is a snapshot of EMS volunteers in Livingston and Steuben counties ... where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow," said Betty Embser Wattenberg of Rural Health Community Systems.

The key finding: "First of all, we have to retain the good people we have ... and we need to find replacements," summed up Everett Ferguson, executive director of the Ontario County Advanced Life Support, Inc., who conducted the survey.

The demands are mounting on EMS volunteers. Not only are there increasing requirements for training and a medical need to be on the scene within minutes, but volunteers also feel the need to limit EMS activities due to work and family commitments, according to the survey.

"The public may be looking at expectations (for service) that may be realistic, may be false, may be something they see on television," Ferguson said. "But they expect, when Grandpa is sick, someone to be there to help him."

The survey indicates the rural EMS ambulance corps of Steuben and Livingston counties have basic life support personnel on the scene in less than seven minutes, with a chief responding shortly thereafter. In areas with advanced life support, volunteer crews and chiefs responded in less than 10 minutes.

While ambulance officers and corps members are nearly unanimous in their belief that more volunteers would have a positive impact on their communities, the overwhelming majority believe adding paid ambulance service to supplement their efforts would have a negative or little effect. Ferguson said survey respondents seemed to believe the presence of paid professionals, in whatever capacity, "probably would make people not want to volunteer."

There was less opposition, however, to adding paid paramedic "fly cars" to their communities.
"In our little 'snapshot,' we are not ready yet for paid ambulance systems," Ferguson said.

The survey and report included an extensive list of findings, with recommendations for both Steuben and Livingston counties that addressed volunteers, training and other EMS details.

For its part, Steuben County is in "the very, very, very preliminary stage of investigation" into what it can do for its EMS and firefighting volunteers, according to Legislative Chairman Stoner Horey, R-Canisteo.

Horey said he had spoken this past week with both Mike Sprague, Steuben County's director of emergency services, and Donna Hatch, county director of real property tax services, about setting up some kind of county property tax break for firefighters and ambulance corps members.

"A tax break in and of itself is not going to make people run out and volunteer," Horey said, "but it is more in recognition of what they do. ... We are going to come up with something, but we don't know what that something is."