Rural area EMS departments in Kansas facing staffing shortage, potential closures

BARBER COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) — A southern Kansas county is in danger of losing one of its EMS departments as rural area EMS departments are being stretched thin.

Barber County EMS coverage consists of two departments: one in Kiowa and one at the hospital in Medicine Lodge. Both are made up of volunteers. With many of them now at retirement age and the inability to recruit younger people for a position that is not full-time pay, EMS and County leaders say they are looking for solutions.

Barber County Commissioner Michael Roe says this is an issue faced statewide.

“Out of 105 counties, I’d say half of them are concerned or very concerned about their EMS and their volunteer services,” said Roe.

Barber County Emergency Manager Mike Loreg says several volunteers in both departments are nearing retirement. Losing qualified replacements to areas that will pay full-time positions has become a serious concern.

“We seem to be a training ground for the bigger services. It takes two jobs for people to make ends meet. A lot of these folks are going to urban areas or moving to the urban areas, or they’re commuting to the urban areas, which leaves them less time to volunteer,” said Loreg.

He says fewer volunteers are able to be on standby and still work to make ends meet.

“Our local employers, that used to allow these folks to go on calls, they’re needing them at their employment and they’re not wanting their folks to leave for 4-5 hours at a time,” said Loreg.

Barber County sent residents a survey to see what they think of the service being provided.

“Put on some full-time people that way can augment the volunteer staff that we do have for those high-volume calls, or during those times of transfers, where they may have to leave their job or be up all night,” said Loreg.

Roe says he agrees it might be time for the county to move to full-time positions.

“When they spend several years of education and the time and the money, they want a full-time job, and we just don’t have it in Barber County right now,” he said.

Chrissy Bartel, vice president of the Kansas EMS Association, says Barber County is not alone.

The department she oversees in Norwich faces similar challenges, adding that many departments must consider moving to a mixture of paid and volunteer positions.

Bartel says many volunteers make the difficult choice to move to a bigger city where they will be paid full-time.

“It makes it tough on those people. Their hearts are there. They want to serve those communities and support those agencies, but unfortunately, due to the need to either go work another full-time job outside of the community or to pick up a part-time job, they’re not able to fulfill that need,” said Bartel.

She says the Kansas EMS Association is actively discussing how to assist rural communities this week.

As for Barber County, they sent out a survey to their residents to get feedback on what changes to make moving forward. County commissioners will pick that conversation back up in late April when they get the results of the survey.

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