x-sender: governor.haley@sc.lmhostediq.com x-receiver: governor.haley@sc.lmhostediq.com Received: from mail pickup service by IQ12 with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Wed, 11 Nov 2015 13:31:56 -0500 thread-index: AdEcrz5HOg92IGb7SRqNHJXxphB+gw== Thread-Topic: Please help Richland County EMS From: To: Subject: Please help Richland County EMS Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2015 13:31:56 -0500 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: Microsoft CDO for Windows 2000 Content-Class: urn:content-classes:message Importance: normal Priority: normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.1.7601.17609 X-OriginalArrivalTime: 11 Nov 2015 18:31:56.0223 (UTC) FILETIME=[3E66BCF0:01D11CAF] CUSTOM A Concerned Citizen 1410 Laurens Street Columbia SC 29204 helprichlandems@gmail.com EMER Please help Richland County EMS 23.120.168.160 Richland County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is in a terrible situation. The brave Paramedics & EMTs serving our community have been, and continue to be be exploited in the wake of the tragic flooding in which they served us so admirably. They are currently working around the clock mandatory overtime hours each day since the flood began. Every single employee is on call every day. No employee is allowed to leave the state, and must respond to headquarters within 1 hour any time of the day or night that they are requested. Each day at least 16 people are required to come in on their day off to meet MIMINUM standards. And regular shifts can be extended from 12 to 20 hours if necessary Just in time for the holidays. This has gone on for 40 days and counting, and employees have been told there is no end in sight. How can they do this you may ask? Supervisors have posted copies of the Richland County EMS Employee Handbook stating that during a "state of emergency" normal shift schedules can be suspended, and employees are required to comply or face termination. Neither law enforcement or fire services are still working under "emergency" protocol in our county. The tragic flood we endured has been twisted for other purposes. Our state is no longer working in OPCON 1 status, as we were during the flood. 27 days ago we reverted back to OPCON 4 non-emergency operations. There is no good reason why EMS should still be working under "state of emergency" capacities. Richland County EMS has stated that response times to outlying areas are so unacceptable that they will continue to operate under emergency protocols until all road closures are reopened. As you well know, it may take years to repair all of our roads. If Richland County's roads are truly so impassable, and response times are such a problem why not request, and accept assistance from outside agencies? Why not ask for help? Why not treat this like the emergency they are leading people to believe it is. The answer is simple: This is not the emergency they are portraying it to be. Yes, the roads are closed, but response times are excellent across the board. None of the areas with road closures have been double staffed with extra employees. All of these areas are doing well with normal staffing. Instead, Richland County EMS is double staffing areas that normally have high call volumes, and very clear working roads. Our heroes are being exploited. Our EMS service has been mis-managed and understaffed, and our heroes are paying the price. If fact, Richland County EMS is now making moves to ensure what they are doing will be treated as the new normal. Typically, employees have two extra days a month where they are on call in case they are needed to come to work, (This has entirely been suspended, and currently they are called as often as need under "emergency " protocol.), but management will soon be vote to double the amount of regular on call days per month in an attempt to regularize the staffing crisis at Richland County EMS long term, once they can no longer use this faux "state of emergency" as an excuse. Employees cannot unionize and cannot advocate for themselves for fear of strict retribution. They will not strike because they know that the lifesaving service they provide for the citizens of Richland County is too important. So again, they sacrifice themselves for our community. But, this is unsustainable. I do not know how much longer they can sacrifice. Employees have quit, and many more may begin quitting on a mass scale. Our EMS heroes are severely under-slept, overworked, and dealing with the very normal PTSD which comes from working a large scale disaster in their home city. They are being pushed to their breaking point, and the man sending them there is Mr. Michael Byrd, Director of Emergency Services. His incredible mis-management of our EMS system has been setting our community up for failure for years, but the cracks in the façade became clear during the flood.Mr. Byrd left Richland County EMS understaffed, instead, choosing to spend the county's budget on new media-centric "toys" rather than sorely needed supply items and personnel. Take for example, the very expensive new bus bought by Mr. Byrd to be used for "mass casualty events". He touted the idea that medics may treat many people at one time using this central unit. During the flood (an actual mass casualty event) this item was never used for aid or treatment. Only after it became clear that outlying areas were left without EMS presence due to road closures, and help was requested by local officials, did Mr. Byrd send this unit out there to provide tetanus shots and water. That's it. No other medical care was provided by this incredibly expensive piece of equipment. The weeks following the flood, it was strictly used for media purposes. In fact, so many extra trucks have been bought recently as promotional tools for EMS (take special note of the 4 USC Gamecock trucks which are generally never used), that when active trucks come in for crew change at the end of a long shift, there is no room to park them. All of these new special trucks are completely un-manned and therefore useless. DHEC regulations state that Richland County must run at least 16 trucks each shift, minimum. For years now, they have run only 13. Michael Byrd is now attempting to save face in the wake of the recent flood events by increasing that number to 18, but with a staffing that, normally, barely keeps 13 trucks active in Richland County. More medics are needed. Mr. Byrd has proposed to hire 5 new employees total in the coming year. This is not enough, when up to 16 people are currently called in a day...no where near enough. Richland County EMS is in a staffing CRISIS. Our EMS System is wounded, and if we are not careful it may bleed out. When Richland County needed help the most, other services from around the state and nation sent medics to relieve our tired EMS heroes. They got halfway here, when Michael Byrd told them to turn around and go home. He let them know their compassion and aid were not wanted here, and instead chose to run his employees ragged. He is continuing to exploit and abuse our brave paramedics & EMTs. None of these lifesaving men & women do this job for self-serving purposes. They are truly noble and self-sacrificing members of our community who continue to serve and protect Richland County despite this outright corruption. Please help them. Our heroes were there for us in Columbia's darkest hour; the least we may do, is to advocate for them in return. Thank you, A concerned citizen