 What makes for excellence in heart care? It starts with one of the most amazing teams of heart surgeons and cardiologists that I've seen assembled under one roof and the region's leading technology in a new $40 million facility. This is the nationally recognized Heart and Vascular Institute of Eastern Kentucky at Pikeville Medical Center. Although many industries have faced staffing shortages since the start of the pandemic, none are as vital as ambulance services. Roughly one-third of all EMTs quit in 2021. We spoke to battalion chief Mitch Case on the increasing need for EMTs throughout the state. As far as EMS in general in the state, in the country, it's scarce. It is. It's just drawing new people to be able to come in and to be able to respond, to be able to take care of people. That's the issue that we're finding is drawing people into this service. Because if we are in trouble, if someone is in trouble, that's what we've always been taught is to call 911 and someone's coming, and we're going to continue to do that. We have multiple services inside just the county of Pike County. To be able to respond, we have to be able to have people in those ambulances to be able to respond and take care of people. On a daily basis, you have to pull and schedule people the best that we possibly can to be able to respond to those calls for service. A 2022 American Ambulance Association study found that 39% of part-time EMTs and 55% of part-time paramedic positions went unfilled because of a lack of qualified candidates. We do have a class going on right now. It's a joint venture between the City of Hockville Fire Department as well as Hockville Medical Center. It was a grant that's funded by SAMHSA and an awesome, awesome opportunity. We started the program so far with 38 people and now we're down to 22 students still continuing forward and looking for a class ending in May. While the job is difficult, it can also be very rewarding. As far as the financial side of it, yes, it's a lower paying occupation. But the rewarding side of it is whenever you put this uniform on is people look to you for care, for comfort, is a lot of times just to be a listening ear. But whenever you do put this uniform on, you're entrusted to go into someone's home and to literally have a mother hand their child over to you and say, can you please help them? For more information on EMT classes, call the Pikeville Fire Department at 606-437-5120. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.