MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mon EMS is adding more emergency care workers to its staff. The announcement comes from correspondence to the Monongalia County Commission from Mon EMS officials, where Executive Director Forest Weyen wrote the new employees are currently in training, with goals to have them serving residents by the end of 2023.
“He (Weyan) has 20 people being trained and hopes that in the next four to six weeks, about six or seven of those people will be available to be a part of the staffing,” Commission President Tom Bloom said.
The announcement comes after concerns were presented by Christopher Marshall from the Madison Center regarding the lack of non-emergency services due to a shortage of EMS workers for Mon EMS. This includes transports to and from hospitals for seniors and disabled patients for check-ups and other needs that can only be met at healthcare facilities. In response, the commission is discussing measures with Mon EMS to alleviate service concerns with the new hires.
“I asked him (Marshall) to reach out again to Forest Weyen to see if there’s any way they can work on the scheduled services and non-emergency transports,” said Bloom.
According to Mon County Commission, discussions are scheduled with Mon EMS aimed at improving the balance between emergency and non-emergency services. Commissioner Sean Sikora will be meeting with Weyen to determine the cost analysis of providing the services, despite a drastic difference in compensation for EMS providing the services.
“Needing transports is good because that’s a paying business that pays one hundred percent,” said Sikora on the economic benefits of non-emergency transports. “So I’m sure that we’ll work out a way that we can push those additional transports into the cycle that (Mon) EMS does,” he said.
More funding is expected to be given to Mon EMS as part of a statewide initiative to improve services in rural areas. This includes an initiative spearheaded by Monongalia County Delegate Joe Statler to have state funds designated to support local EMS services. Along with a county-approved EMS levy expected to give Mon EMS approximately $17.8 million over four years, commissioners are hopeful for expanded services and more employee hires in the near future.
“The larger solution is hopefully down in Charleston, they will do some funding and see if they can earmark some funds to the EMS situation statewide, so we can have more funding (for EMS),” Bloom said.