ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State addressed plans to improve emergency medical technicians and emergency medical services across New York.

Improving emergency services is on the governor’s State of the State to-do list.

This comes at a time when there is not only a statewide, but a nationwide, shortage of ambulance providers, emergency medical technicians and paramedics.

The number of emergency medical services agencies in the state declined from 1,200 pre-pandemic to less than 1,000 post-pandemic, while the number of new EMTs declined by 30% over the same time period.

“There aren’t enough providers to staff ambulances, agencies are struggling to pay the providers that they have and there are more calls for service than we have personnel and rigs to respond to,” Collin Van Laeken, SEIU Local 200 United said. “And that’s here. That’s downstate. That’s Buffalo. Everybody’s feeling the same thing.”

Van Laeken is the union chairperson for AMR – representing paramedics, EMTs and dispatchers. He spoke on the potential changes proposed by the governor.

The New York State Department of Health offers more details on the governor’s plans, which include:

• Making sure emergency transportation providers are appropriately reimbursed.
• Establish a working group to recommend ways to expand access to non-emergency medical transportation.
• Establish nine regional EMS organizations that can better coordinate all the EMS agencies and providers operating within their region and a statewide EMS disaster response system that can rapidly deploy personnel and equipment when and where it is needed during an emergency.
• Allow EMS providers to perform expanded clinical care in the community.
• Permit ambulances to treat patients in place or take patients to urgent care clinics without sacrificing payment for the trip, decreasing the number of unnecessary emergency room visits.

“The scope of practice for EMS providers is very wide,” Van Laeken said. “We can do a lot of things on standing orders in the community to help people. And if we’re able to bridge that gap to help them manage medications or deal with less acute problems at home and leave them at home where they are safe and not utilize system resources or transport them to an urgent care so that we’re reducing those wait times and the crowding at Emergency Departments, those are big plus. The funding piece, I know that the governor announced she had intended to address in the state of the state and I’d be really interested in knowing where that goes.”

The recent life-saving measures taken by the paramedic ambulance team in Cincinnati when Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field have been bringing national attention and reminders about the urgent need for staffing.

“I think it’s getting the conversation back where it should be, which is in spotlight, right?” Van Laeken said. “The necessity of EMS services and expedited response for EMS services is important and it’s something that everyone should be talking about and banging on the doors of their local leaders and say, 'hey, I want that I have an ambulance that can show up at my house in minutes and I want to make sure that ambulance service is staffed and funded to be able to do that.'”

It’s important to point out that EMS is not considered essential – like fire and police services.

Van Laeken says SEIU and the International Association of EMTs and Paramedics are working to get legislation passed to change this.

This could help in the effort to boost the EMS industry in New York and potentially save more lives.