Another case study in high vacancy rates has been Alamance County’s Emergency Medical Services. Yet, this department’s battles with turnover didn’t prevent it from jettisoning seven employees on October 1 because they “did not complete a mandatory protocol update.”
The county’s personnel office has identified this septet as Ryan Buchan, a 41-year-old paramedic who had been with the county since April 9, 2018 and was let go with an hourly pay rate of $20.80; Cory Hartley, a 26-year-old paramedic who had been on the payroll since January 24, 2022 and had a pay rate of $20.80 when he was dropped; Brittany Febres, a 34-year-old paramedic who had been on staff since June 1, 2022 and was dismissed with an annual salary of $43,263.12; Mitchell Sparrow, a 21-year-old EMT who had worked for EMS since November 8, 2021 and was ejected with a pay rate of $17.10; Justin Watson, a 29-year-old paramedic who came aboard on April 25, 2022 and was getting $20.80 an hour when he was terminated; Joshua Wilson, a 24-year-old advanced EMT who also joined on April 25, 2022 and was earning $18.29 an hour by the end; and Michael Wirbelauer, a 21-year-old EMT who joined the agency on March, 21, 2022 and was making $16.80 an hour when he was fired.
Ray Vipperman, the county’s EMS director, has told The Alamance News in an interview this week that the dismissals of these seven individuals concerned training that had been required for all of his agency’s employees.
According to their disciplinary action forms, each of the seven was notified about the requirement on September 22 and was summarily dropped from the roster when they failed to comply by September 30.
The disciplinary form of each of these former staff members indicated that they were to be rehired if they reapplied. Vipperman told The Alamance News that he “doesn’t believe” any of the seven have come back.
