Heat's On: EMS Tours Extended As Calls Rise;
Unions, FDNY Clash On Whether Staff Shortages Exist
By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

In the midst of a brutal heat wave that once again had some residents in Queens and parts of Manhattan without electricity, the Fire Department last week ordered a mandatory tour extension for members of its Emergency Medical Service Bureau in an effort to stay on top of the influx of 911 calls.

PATRICK J. BAHNKEN: Faults FDNY planning.

Fire Department officials said there was no discernible slowdown in ambulance response time, even though call volume was about 20 percent higher than normal during the city's three-day heat wave. The effort from EMS to provide timely service earned kudos from Mayor Bloomberg, who lauded the workforce at an afternoon press conference last week.

Jim Long, an FDNY spokesman, said the department had absorbed the increased workload well.

'Meeting the Demand'

"We have extended one tour by four hours, just to be able to meet the demand and as a measure to better service the public, but we haven't had any problem meeting required response times," he said.

Union officials, however, contended that the extended tour resulted from an ongoing staffing shortage during a peak vacation period, exacerbated by an increase in calls.

THOMAS EPPINGER: Shouldn't be caught short.

On Aug. 3, union records show, dispatchers received 2,800 calls by 4:03 p.m., and callers with non-life-threatening situations were sometimes waiting in queue for extended periods of time - anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. An FDNY source confirmed the sudden increase, saying there was a sharp jump in calls after 2 p.m., up to almost 300 an hour.

EMS on a typical day averages 2,400 hundred calls over 24 hours, with the busiest time being early evening as people arrive home from work.

Kept Entire Tour On

To clear up the Aug. 3 backlog, FDNY officials ordered the mandatory extension of Tour 2, leaving EMS workers who had started their shifts at 7 or 8 a.m. no choice but to stay another four hours.

Mr. Long said the decision to hold over employees was based purely on the department's desire to maintain speedy service in light of the heat wave, which peaked on Aug. 3.

"There is no staffing problem; we have had no shortage of staff and we continue to meet demand," he reiterated.

Union officials aren't opposed to the idea of working 12-hour stretches - they say longer shifts are a better utilization of existing staff because it reduces the number of daily tours to two instead of three. They've been advocating permanent implementation of 12-hour shifts for more than a decade.

'Forgot We Have Families'

But they blasted the department for creating a 12-hour shift based on mandatory overtime instead of developing adequate contingency plans. "This is a cyclical problem - the FDNY totally ignores that people have families outside of the job," charged Patrick Bahnken, president of District Council 37 Local 2507, which represents Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics.

According to Mr. Bahnken, the FDNY has failed to develop a system that properly covers planned absences among the EMS Bureau's 1,710 trained EMTs and Paramedics who work in the field staffing ambulances.

Planned absences are usually department-sanctioned vacations, but can also be taken for medical reasons such as surgeries or pregnancies.

'Whipping the Horses'

"The point is that they are known in advance," Mr. Bahnken said. "They're KVO - known vacancy overtime. The way it's supposed to go is that any member who takes at least three overtime shifts voluntarily a month is exempted from any other mandatory overtime. Contractually, we aren't supposed to do more than two overtime shifts a week."

He continued, "But anytime there's a crunch, they forget that policy and turn to mandatory tours, because the department can't fill all the absences. So the workers who are already doing their part and taking overtime shifts for colleagues end up having to do even more overtime. The FDNY approach is to whip the horse that's pulling the load."

Mr. Long denied that there was a chronic problem within EMS, or that the FDNY relied on mandated overtime to cover its shifts.

Last January, however, the FDNY had to temporarily mandate overtime work when it accidentally allowed too many of its members to transfer into the firefighting ranks, the union pointed out. It also put a hold on some of the transfers until EMS staffing was stabilized.

Mr. Bahnken said job dissatisfaction was a problem among many EMS rank and file, who fear that if they show up for their scheduled shift on a Friday night, for example, they end up on an extended tour that eats their weekend plans.

The Sick-Call Dodge

Since disobeying a direct order isn't an option - charges of insubordination would result - some EMS members dodge mandatory overtime by calling in sick at the last minute, further adding to the staffing shortage. "That does happen, usually when a worker has something they really want to do on what's supposed to be their day off that weekend - go to a wedding, or watch their kid's ballgame. But to say that the workers calling in sick is causing the problem is a cop-out - they call in sick because there's a bigger existing problem," Mr. Bahnken asserted.

Union records showed that from Friday, July 28 to Tuesday, Aug. 1 there were 163 known absences that went unfilled because there weren't enough EMS staffers available to take the shifts. Jacobi Hospital in The Bronx had 23 shifts that weren't covered between July 28 and 30. Union officials said 25 ambulances were out of service Aug. 2 due to lack of manpower.

A shortage of ambulances can translate into longer wait times for non-critical medical calls into the city's 911 system.

Calls are first answered by an operator who takes down basic information, like the patient name and address, and the nature of the call, and are then transferred to an EMS Assignment Recorder Dispatcher, a trained EMT or Paramedic, who prioritizes the call based on the medical urgency and sends it to a dispatcher in the appropriate borough.

If it's a life-threatening situation - Priority 1 or 2 - then usually an Advanced Life Support ambulance carrying two Paramedics and a Basic Life Support ambulance carrying two EMTs are dispatched.

If no ALS unit is available, then only BLS teams are sent. If all ALS and BLS units in a borough are busy, then teams from other boroughs are dispatched.

Waiting List Mounts

But during extended call surges - such as last week, when the intense weather affected many people, especially asthmatics and others who had difficulty breathing - and staff is short, dispatchers can run out of ambulances to send. Calls must queue in each borough until a crew becomes available.

Thomas Eppinger, president of EMS' Officers Local 3621, agreed with Mr. Bahnken's assertions that staffing shortages were a repeat problem. He accused the FDNY of lack of foresight.

"It's not like the date of New Year's Eve or the 4th of July is a big secret - and we know when it's going to be hot and when it's going to be cold every year," he said. "We shouldn't be caught short just because it's heavy vacation time - vacations for the summer that were approved back in April, by the way."

An FDNY source said the policy of allowing EMS workers to sign up in advance to fill known vacancies was something the unions had bargained for several contracts ago because it allowed EMS personnel to voluntarily select overtime shifts that fit with their schedules.

The department has recently beefed up its recruitment efforts. It graduated a class of 75 fledgling EMTs last month, and has a class of 90 in training right now. Another class of approximately the same number is scheduled to begin in October.

'Tremendous Effort'

One FDNY source, speaking on condition of anonymity, applauded EMS for keeping response times steady during the recent two-week stretch that featured intense heat and power outages.

"You really can't stress enough the tremendous effort these workers gave the city, working long days in grueling heat," the source said. "By the same token, when you work a job in public service, there's no getting around the fact that you're gonna have to put in some overtime."