HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Honolulu is facing a serious shortage of ambulances driven by a combination of increased emergency calls and staffing issues. Get Hawaii's latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You Multiple major trauma cases like the triple fatal in Waianae in early September only highlighted the strain on EMS, which saw a shortage of ambulances that weekend. "It's stressful for crews who are woking so hard to actually have to run more calls because we have a few closures that just puts the burden on everyone else, so I can't compliment our team enough," said Honolulu EMS Department Director Dr. Jim Ireland. Honolulu EMS hiring for Academy Every day, EMS aims to have 21 ambulances on the road. Closing units is the last resort when the department is short-staffed. EMS said it adjusts schedules to overlap shifts to make sure ambulances have at least two people in a rig. They concentrate on adding ambulances to the areas where it is the busiest, which includes Downtown Honolulu. The department has reciprocal contracts with the private ambulance company AMR and the federal fire department that provide backup when they are short on ambulances and they are actively recruiting. Seventeen recruits are preparing for their final teams this week to hopefully fill the 26 current EMS vacancies when they graduate in November. "It's absolutely stressful. You're completely right, but it is just so rewarding to be able to help people in such a frontline manner," said Nikolas Stiavetti-Gaudio, EMS recruit. Four new District Chiefs promoted after Honolulu EMS opens fourth district "Regardless of the staffing shortage, I just believe that we want to be able to put out competent and quality EMTs on the road. It's really important because it's somebody's family member that we're dealing with," EMS recruit Kamalani Tabbal added. To help make the department more efficient, Ireland said EMS is adding 16 new ambulances and remounting a dozen. It's also using telemedicine to route patients to appropriate urgent care facilities. EMS receives about 100,000 911 calls a year and they're looking at ways to educate the public on the appropriate time to call for an emergency. "Unfortunately, on top of all those calls, we're getting calls for things like fever, cough, sneeze, constipation, insomnia. Can't sleep, you know. And I'm not making this up, we actually had a call for an acrylic fingernail that fell off," said Ireland. "No matter what. If someone calls 911 we're gonna come, whether it's a minor call or significant, severe life threatening call. But the more people that call for those minor ailments that really could, you could go to your private doctor in urgent care. it's tying up the ambulances that need to go to other things that are emergencies." Check out more news from around Hawaii For long term planning, Ireland wants to make sure people stay with EMS. "It's very, very demanding and emotional. So we really just need to look at everything we can to make our working conditions the best we can for our paramedics who give their all everyday," said Ireland.