First Responders Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Emergency Medical Services Staffing Continuing Positive Turnaround

Ratliff said local EMS squads are excited about the ability to bill insurance patients for emergency care that doesn’t include transports. The legislature passed that law in the general session earlier this year.

Just three years ago, EMS provider numbers across the state were down a third. At that time, more than 3,000 staffers were needed..

In November 2023, state EMS Director Jody Ratliff told WVPB increased recruitment and retention efforts helped gain 600 providers over the past year. On Tuesday, Ratliff told the interim Joint Committee on Volunteer Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services he expects to see more gains when the numbers are released in May.

Ratliff said two years into the EMS Leadership classes conducted in partnership with University of Charleston, the instruction is invaluable. He said the gains have come in promoting rural EMTs and paramedics who are great health care providers but lack the needed business expertise.

“This class is that Director 101,” Ratliff said. “That teaches about budgets, about everything HR, everything that you need to know, that base that you need to actually be a director.”

Among recent EMS advancements, Ratliff said the state is ready to sign the contract for “Hospital Hub” software that will greatly improve patient charting originating in the ambulance.

“In the past, we’ve had to submit our chart to the hospital, once we got them there, fax it to them, mail it to them, depending on what era it was, how we got it there,” Ratliff said. “The Hospital Hub is in real time. As that chart comes through our system, it’ll immediately be sent to the hospital that the patient is going to. That’s a permanent record that will automatically go to the hospital and that chart can actually flow right into the hospital’s chart. So all that permanent record stays with them.”

Ratliff told the committee he expects to see a number of positives from the upcoming Emergency Medical Services Pediatric Symposium. It will be held at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in Fayette County Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.

“It’s free education,” Ratliff said. “It’s the first multi-day pediatric symposium we’ve had in the state. We’ve got instructors coming in from Shriners Children’s National Hospital, Florida Pediatrics and the University of Kentucky. There is going to be trauma and respiratory specialties for children, snake bites, burns, better ingestion, pediatric abuse, head trauma, shock. And the Boy Scout camp is allowing us to use their facilities.”

Ratliff said local EMS squads are excited about the ability to bill insurance patients for emergency care that doesn’t include transport. The legislature passed that law in the general session earlier this year.

“The protocols are ready, and they will be rolling out this week,” Ratliff said. “And they’re champing at the bit to get a hold of them.”

Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, requested the committee push for additional state EMS funding in the expected upcoming special session.

“I’m an advocate that we do have to do some type of state funding that would be in conjunction with the counties where the services are needed out there,” Statler said.

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HOST: West Virginia’s long depleted Emergency Medical Services staffing continues a positive turnaround. Randy Yohe has more.

Randy: Just three years ago, EMS provider numbers across the state were down a third, from a total need of more than 3,000.

State EMS Director Jody Ratliff has said increased recruitment and retention efforts helped gain 600 providers last year. He told the interim Joint Committee on Volunteer Fire Department and EMS Tuesday there is another annual net positive employment gain so far in 2024.

Ratliff said the EMS leadership classes at the University of Charleston are invaluable in promoting rural EMTs and paramedics who are great health care providers, but lack the needed business expertise.

Ratliff bite: 21:24 “This class is that director 101, that teaches about budgets, about everything HR, everything that you need to know, that base that you need to actually be a director.”

Del. Joe Statler, a Republican from Monongalia County, requested the committee push for additional state EMS funding in the expected upcoming special session.

Taiwan Partnership, First Responder Mental Health Highlight House Happenings

Global partnerships and international politics took center stage in the House of Delegates Thursday, along with a continuing legislative effort to address the mental health crisis among the state’s first responders.

West Virginia And Taiwan

Stepping down from his podium, Speaker of the House Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, read House Resolution 9, reaffirming the longstanding sisterhood partnership between West Virginia and Taiwan. The state and the embattled Asian nation have worked together as trade and cultural partners since 1980.

Taiwan delegation member Robin Chang spoke of the strong West Virginia/Taiwan relationship through trade, economic ties and cooperation in education and related fields, including a united stand supporting global democracy.

“Even as our democracy thrives, the people of Taiwan continue to face harassment and aggression from our neighbor across the Taiwan Strait,” Chang said. “That is why it has been so encouraging and important for the 23 million Taiwanese people to have received the strong support of our friends here in West Virginia, and the United States.”

Delegates back from a recent mission to Taiwan talked about Taiwan’s hill and hollow topography being similar to West Virginia. However, they said they were getting 5G broadband everywhere. Delegates said Taiwan’s tunnel, bridge and rail infrastructure was exemplary. Now, legislators are studying Taiwan’s related laws and regulations to see how West Virginia can match up.

Hanshaw said it’s a win-win situation to maintain strong relations with a country fighting to remain independent and free.

“Taiwan is a democratic country,” Hanshaw said. “When we talk about growing and cultivating export markets for West Virginia’s businesses and creating new opportunities to grow our state’s economy, we know that the export markets are how we’re going to do that. And if we want to do business in Asia, we want to do business with people whose values are aligned with ours outright.”

First Responder Mental Health

House Bill 5241 requires the Insurance Commissioner to audit PEIA claims for the treatment of PTSD of first responders. The commissioner is also charged with filing an annual report.

The state EMS Department is among many working to address a mental health crisis among first responders.

Del. Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, sponsored the audit bill. She said first responders from her county and elsewhere told her their PEIA insurance mental health claims were consistently rejected.

“A lot of times in PEIA, they were seen to be denied or they were delayed,” Tully said. “As a result of this, we wanted to make sure the insurance commissioner had no oversight over PEIA claims related to this whatsoever, unlike the insurance commissioner being able to audit private insurance. The end goal is to really see how we can work forward and see if we can’t get coverage for our first responders.”

The first responder PTSD audit bill passed the House 90-0 Wednesday evening and was sent to the Senate.

Nonprofit Trains Service Dogs For Veterans, First Responders On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, a West Virginia based nonprofit is filling a therapeutic need for veterans and first responders by training service dogs. Caroline MacGregor has the story.

On this West Virginia Morning, a West Virginia based nonprofit is filling a therapeutic need for veterans and first responders by training service dogs. Caroline MacGregor has the story.

Also, in this show, the Biden administration is asking Congress for domestic supplemental funding to assist with the opioid crisis and child care costs — some of which would come to West Virginia. Emily Rice reports.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

State EMS Director Tackling Recruitment, First Responder Mental Health Challenges

The dire shortage of EMTs and paramedics across West Virginia is now trending in a positive direction, but there is still much to be done to remedy what many call a first responder mental health crisis.

Randy Yohe spoke with Jody Ratliff, director of the state Office of Emergency Medical Services, on meeting the challenges facing those who come to our aid when we need help the most.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: Director Ratliff, where do things stand? What are the telling numbers right now regarding EMS vacancies, statewide?

Ratliff: Statewide, we’re still down. We look at it this way, over the past 11 years, we’ve lost. Over the past year, we have gained around 600 providers. That’s a huge plus that we’ve turned everything around in the right direction. But the question is, people aren’t really seeing those numbers. When you lose for 11 years, one positive year doesn’t equate to 11. So we’re still low, for sure, but we are heading in the right direction.

Yohe: You were, not too long ago, down a third of your staff. It’s not that anymore, is it?

Ratliff: Not a third, but we’re not far from a third either. We’re still pretty far down. We still need to add more EMTs and paramedics, for sure.

Yohe: What else are you doing for recruitment and retention?

Ratliff: Senate Bill 737 came out. That was for EMS enhancement funding and we’re still working with that right now. We just sent a letter out to the county commissioners on how they can spend that money. It’s basically that monies be able to be spent for an enhancement on payroll. For a provider, they’re going to see, I’ll use the term bonus, above and beyond what they would normally get paid.

Yohe: What are the key challenges your department faces, and what is underway or planned to meet these challenges?

Ratliff: We have a lot of challenges. The state medical director is working on rewriting protocols, updating protocols, or reformatting protocols. Somewhere around June 2024, if not before, we’re going to have a whole new EMS system with all new protocols. They’re going to have more medications, we’re doing away with some of the older medications. We’re gonna allow paramedics to be paramedics and EMTs to be EMTs in the state.

Yohe: What are the benefits to the protocol changes?

Ratliff: The benefits are implementing more modern medicine. We’re getting away from the old stuff that we’ve been doing for years and years and years. It’s outdated. We know it just doesn’t work the way it should. So that’s a benefit to the patients.

Yohe: You had some first responder mental health care initiatives on the drawing board. Some of them may have kicked off to help handle what many responders, and now some legislators, are calling a mental health crisis. Where do the state support and response team projects stand?

Ratliff: That’s a great question. So right now, with Senate Bill 737, 90 percent of it went to enhancement of the funding and 10 percent of it goes to mental health. Each county got $18,800 some odd dollars, and they were able to develop a response team.

If, in that EMS region, an agency has a bad call, and they need that debriefing for their mental health, we’re going to have a response team to come out and be able to do that.

Yohe: Does that also include proactive or preventive care before mental health issues come up for first responders?

Ratliff: That’s the other thing we’re looking at. We’re trying to gather some data. Hopefully we start that in 2024, to be able to get some data so we can do preventative care for first responders. We want to be able to get that data handed over to the EMS coalition so they can start to decipher it and then start figuring out what we need to do to be preventive, not just long-term. Then we get preventative, we get in the moment, and we get long-term. That way we start covering mental health across the board.

Yohe: In the moment care, with that dividing up of $18,000 plus to each county, is there actually a response team available if there’s a real critical trauma incident and some of the first responders need some counseling right then and there?

Ratliff: Right now we do have some folks around the state. I wouldn’t say it’s a critical response team. We’ve just got some areas around the state, some agencies, if you will, handle situations like that. We want to be able to develop those response teams. So EMS, fire and law enforcement are helping EMS, fire law enforcement. There’s no better health and people who do it themselves.

Yohe: Is there a particular mental health training for EMTs? Is talking about mental health and trying to understand things as an incoming EMT involved in the training?

Ratliff: I’m glad you asked that because it will be. We’ve already got plans that if when you come in to EMS with an EMT class, paramedic class, or a critical care class, every time that you go into one of those classes, we’re going to have it set up hopefully, in 2024, that you’ll get about 10 slides about mental health. Not just your own mental health, but also who you can call, how to get a hold of people, things like that. We want from the start of your career, all the way to the top of your career, we want you to see that every single time that you take a class.

First Responders Form Grassroots Mental Health Support Service

Faced with mounting suicides and PTSD rates, some West Virginia first responders struggling with job-related mental health issues are taking matters into their own hands.

Randy Yohe spoke with Dylan Oliveto, the founder of SCARS Support Services. SCARS stands for “shared compassion and resource services,” an organization to help first responders in times of personal crisis.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Yohe: Dylan, tell me what the philosophy and impetus is behind SCARS.

Oliveto: As many folks have talked about mental health among first responders and frontline workers, it has come to the forefront in the last couple of years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. We started identifying more and more folks that were suffering from PTSD, and having some mental health problems that went undiagnosed for years. Basically, this was really an idea on a napkin not too awful long ago. We wanted to find a way to help our fellow first responders and until you’ve experienced that, you really don’t realize you need it, and my own personal struggles is where this idea was born.

Yohe: Talk to me a little bit about your personal struggles and how this related to you helping get this organization started.

Oliveto: I’ve been in the business for about 25 years. We don’t realize the stressors that we put on ourselves. I was unfortunate enough to see my first fatal accident at 16 years old. That was clear back in 1996, when I first started. So over the years, you have trauma that continues to build. You go from this traumatic scene, and then the next traumatic scene erases that memory. And so we just have this constant barrage of these memories that keep building up. For me personally, I’ve worked in the fire service, both paid and professional EMS, as an EMT, paramedic, I went on to be a flight paramedic, and a director level manager and operations of EMS organizations. I’ve had the fortune of working for very great organizations, taking care of some really sick patients and some really ugly trauma patients. In 2021, while I was an operations director, I had a paramedic get stabbed on a call, he took five stab wounds, patient became violent, and got out of his seatbelt. And that started to trigger problems. Shortly after that call, I ended up taking care of a lot of our own employees that were really suffering mentally, of seeing that scene and to know that we had a colleague and a friend that, luckily, had non-life threatening injuries. But that result could have been much different with just a few inches of a knife blade. From that call, the rest of the year was just bad call after bad call. My tipping point was a traumatized infant. Through that, it forced me to take a step back and care about my own mental health, but also start researching how to prevent this build up that our first responders see day in and day out.

Yohe: Do first responders around West Virginia get to take a breath between calls, especially between traumatic calls or is it right off to the next one?

Oliveto: It’s hit or miss. I think most first responders would agree that when you have one bad call, you have a string of bad calls. And then you’ll go to times where nothing’s ever routine and you don’t have traumatic experiences. I think almost any first responder you talk to would say, “Oh, yeah, I had a month’s worth of really nasty calls.” I can remember at a very young age, in the Morgantown area, we had several fatal accidents over the span of maybe 30 days, So we just get a buildup. When many of us started, there was no support, other than talking about it, maybe with your partner, but if it bothered you, it was portrayed as a weakness. We had this very much “suck it up” and deal with it, move on to the next call attitude. And that broke a lot of our first responders over the years,

Yohe: We’ve heard that term quite a bit, “suck it up.” Some say that’s an expired term when it comes to first responders, others say no, that there’s still a pervasive “suck it up” attitude throughout the business, which is it?

Oliveto: The unfortunate part is many of our current administrators come from the “suck it up” era. A lot of these folks that come from that timeframe, are in a position where they’re not on the truck as much anymore, they’re not out in the field as much anymore, they’re not working directly in the emergency room anymore, so on and so forth. They don’t have a full grasp of how bad it has gotten out in the field. Not only are we dealing with trauma, but now we’re dealing with a post-pandemic of just call after call after call, we’re dealing with overdose after overdose. The service that is provided by fire and EMS, law enforcement, the volume itself is so taxing that that’s a whole new stressor that a lot of people are not ready to handle.

Yohe: State EMS Director Jody Ratliff said that he is working as hard as he can to put that “suck it up” attitude in the past.

Oliveto: He is. And he’s got a really good backing from the State Medical Director. Our state is very fortunate to now have a director and a medical director who understands the current situation of EMS and the current situations of care providers. And I do believe that he’s working very hard with not only the agencies but at the state and federal level to make sure that there’s funding and resources in place to get our responders to help that they need.

Yohe: I see on your website where SCARS offers a “judgment free zone” and a place “where it’s okay to not be okay.”

Oliveto: That’s kind of become the catchphrase of a lot of our responders throughout the state and actually throughout the country. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a lot of places where they are very serious about mental health. That kind of slogan is making the newer responders and even the older responders understand that it is okay to not be okay. And it is okay that this trauma does affect you on a daily basis. What we wanted to make sure to try to provide was a space that was safe, where we could allow people to interact with each other, share their stories, share their problems, and not have any fear of being mocked or made to feel like less of a responder or less of a person for allowing these calls to bother them. Because, a normal human being does not have to see what we see.

Yohe: You’ve got your organization SCARS in Harrison County. I know over in Huntington, they’ve got COMPASS, which is similar. How vital is it right now that the state’s plans for getting a statewide program to help first responders with their mental health be implemented?

Oliveto: Next to funding, it should be next on their list. We’re losing first responders by the hundreds. Without any funding, we’re not going to keep our squads alive. Without any funding, we can’t address the mental health issue. Funding’s got to be number one on the agenda. Then number two is our mental health. I think a big initiative for the state to do is figure out how to have an EMS worker recertify every two years or every four years, part of that needs to be some kind of a mental health check. It should be no different than getting your yearly checkup at your doctor’s office, to make sure you’re okay and at an organizational level, to make sure that there are resources in place to help mitigate mental health struggles within the community of the first responders.

Helping First Responders In Times Of Personal Crisis On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Randy Yohe speaks with Dylan Oliveto, the founder of SCARS Support Services. SCARS stands for “shared compassion and resource services” – an organization to help first responders in times of personal crisis.

On this West Virginia Morning, faced with mounting suicides and PTSD rates, West Virginia first responders struggling with job-related mental health issues are taking matters into their own hands.

Randy Yohe speaks with Dylan Oliveto, the founder of SCARS Support Services. SCARS stands for “shared compassion and resource services” – an organization to help first responders in times of personal crisis.

Also, in this show, a Nitro elementary school teacher received a $25,000 Milken Educator Award. Emily Rice has more.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning