Davidson County halts building Silver Valley EMS station
Davidson County has postponed building a new EMS base in Silver Valley due to staffing issues, according to Davidson County Manager Casey Smith.
In May 2024, the Board of Commissioners approved the purchase of property off Highway 109 next to the Silver Valley Fire Department to build a new EMS base to increase response times in Denton and Thomasville. The county paid $62,000 towards the project, $27,000 for the land and $35,000 in design and architect fees.
During the commissioners meeting on Thursday, Smith said the project was ready to be bid for construction, but there is an issue with staffing which has caused the county to put a pause on moving forward.
“Staffing for EMS has been a challenge, and it's a challenge across the state and the nation,” said Smith.
Davidson County EMS has four shifts of 13 vehicles during the day and 12 at night, according to Smith. He said Davidson County EMS needs 88 people to cover all these shifts.
Currently they have 81 people on staff, making a negative seven positions which equals to losing an average of two trucks per shift, with full-time and part-time employees filling in the gaps.
Smith said that overall, Davidson County is close to surrounding counties for average salaries for EMTs, advanced EMTs and paramedics, especially after a pay adjustment about a year and a half ago.
And while the vacancy rate is basically the same as surrounding counties, the issue is local hospitals have taken a lot of the available licensed paramedics. Paramedics receive more extensive training and can perform more life-saving functions than an EMT, making a difference between Advanced Life Support and Basic Life Support vehicles.
Smith said the pool of qualified paramedics is small, with 6,000 licensed paramedics statewide serving 11 million people.
He said Forsyth County has gotten around the need for a paramedic on each truck, by developing a quick-response follow up unit where a paramedic can arrive on the scene of an emergency on an at-need basis. This cuts down on the number of paramedics needed per shift.
Davidson County EMS is about 75 percent EMTs to 25 percent paramedics ratio for total employees.
Smith also said that other counties have hospitals with facilities such as a cardio-catherization lab for heart-attack, stroke and trauma victims, which cuts down on response times. Whereas Davidson County EMS must take these patients to Forsyth County tying up availability of that vehicle.
Smith said he feels building the Silver Valley EMS needs to be postponed until this staffing issue is fixed.
“I think it’s a great idea,” said Smith. “We have seen the maps (that) there is no coverage in that area...It’s a long haul to get to call. I don’t say we get rid of the land, I just say we postpone this idea for a minute and try to work on this staffing.”
Smith recommended to the board that there needs to be an examination of the EMS system, possibly hiring a consultant to examine the issue of addressing staffing issues.
