Rural Minnesota struggles to replace retiring volunteer medical responders

The number of volunteer first responders in rural Minnesota is hitting dangerously low levels, with retirement brutalizing a service that relies on younger generations to step in to fill the growing need. The problem is that with younger generations moving to urban areas, there's no one to fill that need, Pam Louwagie reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In rural northwest, southwest and west central Minnesota, 17 to 18.5 percent of residents are 65 or older, with numbers expected to grow to 21 percent by 2020, and 26 percent by 2030. (Strib photo by Renee Jones: Jamie Sommers of Wanamingo in EMS training)

About 60 percent of the state's rural emergency responders are volunteer, but "The shortage of recruits has shuttered some small emergency squads, lengthening response times as ambulances race to help from farther away," Louwagie writes. "Emergency service leaders say the problem will only get worse and they will have to get creative with solutions, likely by mixing in some paid staff and figuring out a way to pay for them." Mark Schoenbaum, who directs the state health department’s Office of Rural Health and Primary Care, told Louwagie, “I think we stand at a critical point. Given (baby boomers’) predominance in the rural EMS volunteer workforce, in 10 years few of them will still be on the scene.”

With ambulances sometimes 45 to 50 minutes away, rural Minnesota relies on volunteer first responders when it's a life or death situation. Joe Mercil, who recently retired as a volunteer in Brooks, a town with a population of 141, said finding a replacement was tough. He told Louwagie, "I decided it was time for me to quit and let the younger people take over, but you can’t get anybody in these towns to take over. … The first question they ask is ‘How much money do you make?’ They don’t realize you’re (a) volunteer.” And being a volunteer means that in addition to working a full-time job, or having other full-time duties, the first responder has to remain earshot of an emergency radio, because they might be the only one in town qualified to help. (Read more)