Why Should Delaware Care?
In an effort to address its paramedic staffing shortage — an issue that localities are facing across the country — Kent County earlier this month doubled its sign-on bonus. County officials also are looking ahead to additional measures to improve recruitment.
Kenny Kelly became a paramedic because he wanted a job that felt “active” after he finished serving in the military.
But 13 years into his career with Kent County Emergency Medical Services, Kelly constantly works overtime. He juggles the pressure of prolonged staffing shortages while responding to a constant stream of calls for drug overdoses, drug-induced violence and elderly peoples’ medical issues across the county.
Kelly, who said he still loves his job despite the long hours, is at a loss when it comes to encouraging more people to become paramedics in Kent County.
“I don’t know now how to get people to do this job,” Kelly told Spotlight Delaware. “I don’t know how to appeal to the masses.”
Facing a 20% vacancy rate, Kent County Emergency Medical Services is battling a staffing shortage “crisis,” Public Safety Director John Tinger said.
In an effort to address the shortage and recruit more paramedics to Kent County, Levy Court Commissioners voted on Aug. 5 to double the county’s sign-on bonus, bringing the payments up to a range of $5,000 to $10,000.
The bonuses, determined by years of experience, are now in line with Kent’s much larger northern neighbor, New Castle County.
The department has been struggling to attract and retain paramedics since the COVID pandemic, Tinger said. But with a recent string of retirements, deaths and EMTs making career changes, the county’s 12 open positions represent an all-time high.
“It’s all-hands-on-deck during this time,” Tinger said.
The sign-on bonus increase is one step in a series of changes the county is making, which began with paying paramedics during their training, and they hope will continue with other measures to raise salaries and lower retirement ages.
A universal problem
EMS shortages have been plaguing communities across the country since COVID, largely due to burnout and low wages.
While lower than Kent County’s 12 of 60 vacancies, New Castle County also has a staffing shortage, with 22 of its 156 paramedic positions open — a 14% vacancy rate. Sussex County, in comparison, has just four of 120 positions vacant.
Sussex County EMS Public Information Officer Glenn Marshall said the county’s beaches and innovative service protocols help keep its department closer to being fully staffed.
Levy Court Commissioner Bob Scott said Kent County first instituted a $2,500 to $5,000 sign-on bonus in 2021 to address the first wave of pandemic-related staffing shortages.
Bonuses, Tinger said, are paid out to paramedics incrementally over three years in an effort to encourage them to stay at least until they receive the entire amount.
While Sussex County does not have sign-on bonuses for paramedics, New Castle County offers a $10,000 sign-on bonus for all fully certified paramedics, paid in a lump sum after the employee completes orientation.
New Castle County was an early adopter of the sign-on bonus concept about three years ago, said Mark Logemann, the county’s chief of emergency medical services. Now that more counties across the country have created similar programs, though, Logemann said he thinks the incentive has started to lose its power.
Scott, who has been involved with Kent County’s emergency services as a firefighter for more than 30 years, described doubling the bonus as a “small step” in the process toward better recruitment and retention.
“It’s something that you have to constantly be tweaking, mainly because methods we used 20 years ago to retain employees may not be of the same importance to today’s generation,” he said.
Tinger said he also hopes to implement additional changes to make Kent County paramedic salaries more competitive and lower the retirement requirement from the current 30 years of service.
For fully licensed paramedics, the pay rate in Kent County is $27.13 per hour, or about $56,430 annually.
The starting pay rate in Sussex County is $27.73 an hour, or $57,678 annually; and $55,875 annually in New Castle County.
Another program that Scott and Tinger said helps attract new employees is the county’s paramedic training program through the Delaware Technical Community College.
The county pays for a student’s tuition to the 14-month certification program, and pays them a salary of $47,000 a year while they complete the program, in exchange for at least three years of work afterward.
Prior to the collaboration with Del Tech, which began last fall, Kent County had been sponsoring students since 2021 to get training at the Good Fellowship in West Chester, Pa.
Sussex County has a comparable training collaboration program with Del Tech, while New Castle County works with Kent’s former partner, the Good Fellowship, for its program.
While the Del Tech training program is only in its second year, Tinger said it has brought in at least four to five students a year, which provides helpful long-term potential for the county.
“We will pay someone to go to school,” he added. “That’s how desperate we are.”
Shortage comes as demand rises
As Kent County EMS has struggled with shortages, its call volume has been steadily rising each year. The total number of service calls increased from about 18,000 in 2022 to more than 19,500 in 2024.
The department received more than 10,000 calls in the first half of 2025 – putting the county on track to break 20,000 calls this year.
Tinger attributed this to the increasing population in Kent County, and the fact that much of the new population is of an older age that “requires a lot more medical care.”
In order to meet rising demand amid the staffing shortages, Tinger said, the department has been forcing overtime shifts and working with fluctuating numbers of paramedics at various stations to accommodate missing employees.
Mia Davis, a Kent County paramedic who completed the Del Tech program and was hired as a fully certified paramedic two years ago, said she sometimes works up to 24 hours at a time to fill short-staffed shifts.
“I work a lot, lot more,” Davis said.
Davis said that, with the recent shortages, she has been working 56 or 58 hours a week, on average.
While firefighters are mostly volunteers in Delaware and paramedics are paid employees, fire companies also have struggled with increased call volumes and staffing shortages in recent years.
The county currently has paramedic stations in Dover, West Dover and Smyrna. It also is in the process of building new stations in Frederica and Harrington using COVID-era federal funding, as those EMS units were previously housed inside fire stations.
The new stations, which are expected to be finished by December, will not require new paramedic staff, Tinger said.
While Scott acknowledged that staffing for emergency services has been a struggle for a number of years, he said he is hopeful the increased sign-on bonuses will kick Kent County closer to full capacity once again.
“Staffing is like a roller coaster ride,” he said.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
