Ambulance shortage causes concern

 

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. - As a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency management service (EMS) departments have to wait years to get a new ambulance.

Since 2020, the demand for new ambulance orders has increased by about 40 percent, according to EMS 1.

Amid the global microchip shortage, passenger vehicles were often given priority to emergency vehicles.

Now, departments might have to wait years to get a new ambulance, meaning many are relying on older, less reliable machines to save lives.

“We experienced a shortage, starting in 2022, of chassis,” said Dean Martin, owner of Crossroads Ambulance Sales & Service in Middlebury. 

A chassis is the vehicle, cab and tires that carries an ambulance box, or module.

“The majority of the chassis that were ordered in 2022 did not come through,” Martin said.

Luckily, crossroads advance ordered extra products in 2021, but nationwide, Martin said the shortage is creating a massive backlog.

“Frenzy purchasing was going on,” he said. “It increased the backlogs to the manufacturers to the point to where they’re unprecedented levels. We’re looking at 2.5 to 3 years, 3.5 years if a department wants to purchase new.”

“There are lot of departments that are using trucks that are literally on their last legs,” Martin continued.

In the event of catastrophe, like the August crash in Starke County that killed paramedic Michael Wilcox and destroyed an ambulance, departments must rely on stock or demo vehicles from companies like Crossroads.

According to Starke County EMS services, anonymous donors and grant funding paid for a used replacement ambulance. Given the circumstances of the tragedy, Starke County was given priority for a new department vehicle.

“Prices are still going up, not at the rate that they had been for the last 18 months or 2 years,” Martin said. “We have seen price increases like I have never seen in my 21 years of doing this.”

And as autoworkers continue marching on the picket lines in the United Autoworkers (UAW) strike, industry insiders are watching closely.

“Short-term, we don’t see that the UAW strike is going to affect us,” Martin said. “There’s only 2 ambulance lines that are currently affected by that.”

Of course, there are still concerns for the future if the strike isn’t resolved quickly.

“The question is, is it going to start affecting other product lines the auto manufacturers make that chassis that we use in our industry?” Martin said.

According to the American Ambulance Association, not only is there a shortage of ambulances, but there is a crippling shortage of paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs).

Paramedics are getting recruited by hospitals to offset the nursing shortage, and organizations on average have 30 percent of EMS positions open.

All this can lead to longer 911 response times.

"I always think you'll have a provider to respond,” said Nathaniel Metz, president and chairman of the Indiana EMS Association. “Unfortunately, the timeliness of that response may be what's impacted. It may take longer. You might start seeing agencies trying to prioritize their patients and their calls, which means that when you call in from 911, someone is fielding that call and trying to decide out of four or five people needing help, who is the most important?"

He said EMS services make up less than one percent of the state’s public safety budget, saying it is severely underfunded.