PHOENIX 鈥� As EMS agencies battle the common challenges of staffing shortages, burnout and budget constraints, leaders are eager to hear from agencies who have found solutions that are tried and tested in the field.
At the Pinnacle 2025 EMS conference, Sunstar Paramedics COO Richard Schomp shared how his organization has realized success in staffing and response times by implementing a tiered response model and unique scheduling solutions.
Download | Industry analysis: What Paramedics Want in 2025
Memorable quotes
- 鈥淲e have to grow our own.鈥�
- 鈥淚鈥檝e never moved anybody (to another shift) against their will.鈥�
- 鈥淲orkload and employee engagement really go hand in hand鈥�
Top takeaways
Schomp shared the scheduling and deployment changes Sunstar has implemented to keep medics happy and to support the community.
1. Grow your own responders
The key to staffing shortages? Add more providers. But how? Ridgecrest-based Sunstar is located in Florida, where Emergency Medical Responders are qualified with a 40-hour class. Sunstar hired 20 people off the street with no medical training, and in 30 days, were able to put them through EMR training and Sunstar onboarding, learning how to operate an ambulance and a stretcher safely, and put them in the driver鈥檚 seat of non-emergency transport rigs. The benefits included:
- Immediate improved headcount (and a new community of potential employees not able to commit the time or resources to EMT training)
- Improved schedule deployment (EMTs were able to move out of the driver鈥檚 seat for non-emergency transports and into BLS response, getting the right units to the right place)
- Decreased cost per unit hour
2. Vary your shifts and scheduling to meet personnel where they want to be
Even for agencies that are well staffed, retention and call-outs threaten your daily availability. Sunstar implemented 4 approaches to flexible scheduling to keep personnel satisfied:
- Diverse reporting locations: Instead of requiring all employees to report to the same deployment center, they opened multiple, cutting commutes and improving satisfaction.
- Variable shift hours: Sunstar medics have options when it comes to shift length. Don鈥檛 get stuck in the X-hour work week, Schomp encouraged. Be flexible.
- Biweekly shift bid: Opening up the available shift bid every 2 weeks reduces the time personnel spend worrying about getting a shift that works with their schedule, and allows leaders to pull levers based on what鈥檚 working. Sunstar awards shifts based on seniority, with new hires filling the open shifts, and evaluates whether to keep a shift available whenever one opens up: rather than moving people against their will.
- School swap/drop program. In the spirit of growing their own, Sunstar funds paramedic school for personnel, schedules around school, and then allows student medics to drop any shift they鈥檇 like (except for weekend shifts) on their long weeks, while maintaining full-time benefits and pay.
This flexibility pays off in employe engagement and retention.
3. Realize multifaceted benefits from a tiered response model
Patients, providers and the healthcare system as a whole has felt the effects of Sunstar鈥檚 tiered response implementation, including:
- Improved response times. Sunstar has successfully improved response time compliance with BLS vs. ALS vs. interfacility deployment, without sacrificing customer service. If an EMT-staffed BLS unit responds to an ALS call which is downgraded, they can transport the patient. If the call remains at an ALS level, the fire-rescue paramedic can jump into the ambulance, providing ALS care en route.
- Hospital flow: Schomp noted his system does not experience bed delays, with the tiered model facilitating right-sized care and keeping hospital discharges out of the 911 system.
- Employee satisfaction: Schomp noted taking interfacility transfers out of the ALS-trained paramedic repertoire made medics feel like they were making a difference, using their skills and training to help people, rather than move people.
Schomp demonstrated that with the right mix of innovation, flexibility and investment in people, EMS agencies can turn today鈥檚 workforce challenges into tomorrow鈥檚 success stories.
