Board wants to help county hire more paramedics

At the Dec. 12, Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting, Chair Kevin Jeffries (1st District) and Supervisor Karen Spiegel (2nd District) submitted an item on the agenda asking the county’s chief executive and CalFire to develop a strategy to alleviate the current shortage of firefighter II/paramedic vacancies in the Riverside County Fire Department.

This was approved without any discussion and the board expects a report with recommendations for a solution to be given to its ad hoc committee on Fire and Emergency Medical Services within 60 days.

The “firefighter II/paramedic” is considered a first responder. These individuals provide advance life support (ALS) to patients at emergencies. While the county’s approved budget and agreement with CalFire authorizes 305 firefighter II/paramedic positions, Jeffries and Spiegel advised their colleagues that only 40%, or 123, of these critical positions are filled.

Although they acknowledge that these are difficult positions to fill, especially since the COVID shutdowns in 2020, the county has already begun to find some ways to mitigate the problem. For example, it recently established a partnership between the Housing and Workforce Solutions’ Workforce Development team and the fire department.

This effort has created a paramedic training program. Graduates are qualified and receive their National Registry paramedic certificate. The first class of 19 students graduated in October 2023.

However, Jeffries and Spiegel noted that CalFire has not yet hired any of these students. American Medical Response (the county’s ambulance service provider), however, has hired some. According to CalFire, this position requires some previous firefighting experience. Since not all of the paramedic graduates met this criterion, it is difficult for CalFire to classify them as a firefighter II/paramedic.

The number of vacant firefighter II/paramedic positions not only stresses the county’s ability to respond to medical emergencies, but also the individuals themselves. The current county fire department firefighter II/paramedics must consistently work overtime in order to ensure more engines can respond as ALS. Without a paramedic, engines can only provide basic life support on-site and the patient rushed to hospital emergency care, Jeffries and Spiegel alerted their colleagues.