05/22/2026
**Long read** This week if people haven't noticed was EMS week. A time to celebrate those on our field of work. Yes, we went to the schools, had our first open house and had a week of getting out into the community to celebrate.
The big celebration is this team coming together in different ways to make the events possible. What goes unseen in this service that some may know but most don't, is the work that goes into keep this service going.
Clear Lake EMS has 12 employees (always looking for good people to join) our amazing staff consists of 5 first responders, 4 EMTs, 1 Medic, and 1 RN, EMTB. 12 people with other full-time jobs try to make sure we operate at a 24/7 status. They aren't making the big bucks its paid-on call volunteer with us $10/hr, no benefits, no retirement, no perks of the job like most all other jobs. Just $10 to respond when that pager goes off. And that's only what they have been getting for the last few years.
The Education required and standards we expect are no different than all other services, part-tie, full time, rural, and inner city. we are all learning the same thing. licensing the same way, doing skills beyond what most others are taught. We don't have a doctor in our ears telling us what to do, we have a protocol for what needs done and we are expected to know what to do. This is not a load and go dilly dally service, we have very well-trained members in this service trying to show up as much as possible to make sure our community and those we serve are given the best care.
Throughout the year the expectations of EMS have increased so much these so called "Meat Wagons", are little clinics on the roads. More and more skills and equipment are required to do the job. Our funding comes from municipalities who have a Per-capita rate to pay for services, patient billing, and fundraisers or grants. We are not getting funded by the government for sustainability and we cannot just go and get what we need. There is a lot to keeping EMS in the communities and in our world how long will volunteerism
last.
Our team does this because they care about people, they get spit on, verbally harassed, physically attacked, go into places alone with no help or police always available, they risk their lives everyday hoping that the 911 call is a medical problem and not a set up for harming us (real life problems). And all of this for no benefit and a week of appreciation. Thank your emergency workers, support the services. And contact state legislatures and let's get EMS seen as a necessity and funded in a way that what we need we can get and pay all those volunteer, part time, and full time EMS services something they are worth so 30+ yrs down the road when we hang up our pagers, there's something to retire with and all those who gave it all they had can be ok. It is not like anyone is lining up to join EMS or we wouldn't have such short staffing as a whole that EMS services have to stop existing.
Thank you to our team here in Clear Lake covering into 4 counties and 7 municipalities and all the sacrifices each one makes so we can answer the call as best we can.
