A Montana man's accident highlighted the life-threatening difficulties the U.S.'s rural residents face from the nation's growing shortage of volunteer EMTs.
Two years ago, Vern Greyn, a 58-year-old Dutton, Montana, resident fell 12 feet from a tractor and hit his head, NPR News reported. Greyn's wife called 911, but the volunteer EMT who showed up wasn't strong enough to get him into the ambulance. The EMT, who was also Greyn's daughter-in-law, had to call for help from the nearest town, leaving the injured man waiting for help for at least 30 minutes.
NPR News reported that emergency medical services across the country are struggling to find young volunteer EMTs to replace retiring volunteers and that a third of volunteer EMS agencies are having difficulty covering operating costs.
"More and more volunteer services are finding this to be untenable," Brock Slabach, chief operations officer of the National Rural Health Association, told NPR News.
Data reveals that volunteers staff over 50% of rural EMS agencies across the country -- as compared to only 14% in urban areas -- and state data shows that 60% of volunteer EMTs in Montana are 40 years old or older.
Proposed solutions to address the problem include using county funds to hire paid staff in rural areas and federal policy changes to reimburse hospitals in exchange for providing EMS services.
