MORGANTOWN — Across the 61 days of June and July, Morgan County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) was fully staffed and in service for just 24 days. On the other 37 days, EMS was either working with a reduced staff, or it was not able to run all of its ambulances, according to records obtained by The Correspondent.
Officials in Jackson Township are fed up, because the residents most affected by the shortages are usually them.
“We found out through multiple sources that (the county EMS) truck is not staffed upwards of 60 percent of the time,” said Jackson Township Trustee Matt Davidson at the most recent meeting of the township advisory board. “And then sometimes when they count it as staffed, it’s two EMTs and not a paramedic. In the contract, it says it’s gonna be 24/7 paramedic coverage. We pay the taxes for it.”
June and July are the recent peak of a long period of staffing shortages for Morgan County EMS, a period that stretches back at least 18 months. There has not been a single month over the last 18 in which EMS was fully staffed with all ambulances running.
Some months are better, some are worse. EMS was fully staffed with all ambulances running for 23 days in April, and 21 days in May. October and December 2025 saw critical shortages, however, with both months showing a full staff for just 12 days each.
March 2025 was EMS’s best month over the last 18, with full service on 24 days, and all ambulances running with staff reductions on just seven days.
Brent Worth, chief executive administrator for Morgan County EMS, says EMS is “fully staffed,” but there have been some “unforeseen employee absences” over the last two months that have stretched the department thin.
EMS jobs are high stress and physically demanding, and a number of people on the payroll miss work due to injury, illness or vacation. Worth said the last two months, in particular, saw multiple employees miss work to recover from surgeries.
Regardless of why EMS employees are missing work, the first people impacted are usually people with Morgantown addresses.
“We’ve had 3,000 calls so far this year throughout the county,” Worth told The Correspondent last week. “Only 120 have been in Jackson Township. They are our slowest station.”
Worth explained that the county EMS is designed to be covered by other EMS stations when the former is down staff. When the county is not fully staffed, Jackson Township, being the slowest station, will see services covered by Martinsville or Green Township instead of the county.
“We have a flexible response method,” Worth said. “The difference in response time is about two minutes, sometimes just one minute.”
Worth said when EMS is fully staffed, the response time in Jackson Township is usually around 10.6 minutes. When EMS is not running all its ambulances, Martinsville responds to Jackson Township in about 12.5 minutes.
“The amount of times that truck goes unstaffed is unacceptable,” Davidson told The Correspondent. “When there’s reductions in staff, the first to get cut is always us. If we’re paying our part, why are we not getting service? They tell me, ‘Oh, the Martinsville service area is only two more miles away.’ I say that’s unacceptable. A lot can happen to someone who needs help during those two extra miles.”
Todd Hope, a former EMS employee, told The Correspondent that many employees with EMS have requested to work overtime to make up for staff reductions, but leadership in EMS usually rejects the overtime requests.
“There was never a day when I was on the job that I thought we didn’t need all of our ambulances,” Hope said. “But, man, there were definitely days when I wish we had more.”
Hope was fired from EMS for allegedly making a clerical error. He believes he was really fired, however, after talking with fellow employees about organizing a union.
Nevertheless, Hope doesn’t want to be seen as a “disgruntled former employee,” as he has already found another job. He said he simply wanted to highlight a “very real problem” affecting the people of Jackson Township.
Worth responded to Hope’s claim that EMS leadership generally rejects overtime requests, largely affirming that the organization tries to avoid paying people to work overtime.
“We only have a certain amount of resources,” Worth said. “If we can offer reasonable services without overspending on overtime, we’re gonna do it.
“With some of these requests for overtime, we’d be paying people 24 hours of time-and-a-half for a resource that maybe won’t be utilized,” Worth continued. “I wouldn’t ask the county for more money if we can offer reasonable coverage.”
Worth touted the county EMS’s coverage of Jackson Township, saying that out of 120 calls out of Jackson Township this year, 93 have seen a response from the county EMS. The rest of the calls saw a response from Martinsville, with “no difference” in patient outcome, Worth said.
Nevertheless, Jackson Township and its elected officials are not happy, and at the July meeting of the township advisory board, Davidson brought up the idea of demanding the county EMS vacate its Jackson Township building if it refuses to operate every day.
It’s unclear if the advisory board will continue exploring that idea — especially since Davidson is on his way out of office — but it does speak to the township’s frustration with Morgan County EMS.
