BUFFALO, N.Y. — Buffalo and nearby suburbs have 18 new paramedics and EMT's on the street responding to emergency calls.
AMR Buffalo says the largest class from their 'earn while you learn' program just graduated—12 men and 6 women are now full-time paramedics or EMT's.
"We pay the providers to go to school, and then when they complete school, they're full time employees for us," said Scott Karaszewski, Chief EMS Officer for AMR Buffalo.
Since the program began in 2018, more than 430 paramedics and EMT's have graduated from the program in the area covered by AMR WNY.
"We're a community partner," Karaszewski said. "We're obviously trying to support our staff by sending them to school."
News of 18 paramedics and EMT's comes as concerns have grown within the Buffalo Common Council over response times by AMR.
AMR maintains that their average response time in Buffalo, 9 minutes 21 seconds, falls within national averages.
During his testimony to the Common Council last week, Regional Director for AMR WNY Tim Frost said that many of the calls that AMR responds to could be fulfilled by a Lyft, Uber or other transportation service.
"Obviously, not every emergency is created equally," Karaszewski said. "We triage and prioritize calls according to the, the nature of the call, and we handle the most serious calls at the fastest pace."
Karaszewski echoed sentiments expressed by Frost to city lawmakers last week, staffing has the biggest impact on response times. He says AMR is not immune to industry-wide staffing constraints.
"That's why we always come up with different ways to try to create staffing, recruit staffing and retain staffing," Karaszewski said."
Luke Frank, a graduate of the latest class of EMT's and paramedics, previously worked in the field of mental health crisis services.
"Whenever I did a lot of crisis service work, I really enjoyed working with people," Frank said. "I always had a kind of fond of EMS when they came to help out."
The ability to earn a salary while training to be a paramedic, according to Frank, made the decisions to change careers easier.
"You'd be in class three days a week, and then two days a week you'd be right on ambulances as EMT student," Frank said. "So you get that much more exposure from that."
AMR says that a new class of EMT and paramedic recruits recently began their training and are expected to graduate next fall.