A new report recommends the merging of Bethlehem’s volunteer ambulance agencies by the end of the year, but the two groups targeted feel the timetable is unrealistic.
Michael Daily and Terry Hannigan, two representatives of the town District Board of Ambulance Commissioners, presented their findings at a Bethlehem Town Board meeting earlier this month. The report found savings could be realized if Bethlehem and Delmar EMS were to combine forces, but the amount that would be saved is still unknown.
The consolidation of the transporting agencies “would decrease redundancy, allow improvement in operational efficiency and improve patient care by reducing response times,” according to the report.
Town Board Councilman George Lenhardt, who is chairman of the Board of Ambulance Commissioners, said in a later interview the board was created under former Supervisor Sam Messina in July of 2011. The town was seeing an increase in EMS coverage and Bethlehem coverage and Bethlehem now spends $1.3 million a year on emergency medical services from Bethlehem and Delmar Volunteer Ambulance Services, the Western Turnpike Rescue squad and the Albany County Sheriff’s Office.
“The board was formed to get those numbers to decrease and to make sure all citizens were receiving the same quality in care,” Lenhardt said.
The board found a “great variation” exists between services provided in the southern and northern parts of the town. Bethlehem EMS covers the Selkirk Fire District and Delmar EMS covers the Delmar, Elsmere and Slingerlands fire districts, but the areas technically overlap. The Board of Commissioners found the two agencies to differ in the “management of data and financials, as well as in their operational capabilities.”
The report recommends the two agencies merge by the end of the year. The plan has been met with some resistance and when asked why, Daily said it could be a case of “maintaining your own fiefdom.”
“Regardless, this town is ours and the programs we are doing in the town should be supportive of the town,” he said.
Both sides seem willing to merge, but feel more time is needed.
“Bethlehem Ambulance is and has been amenable to any process that benefits the residents of the town — including a merger —but we hope that such a merger is allowed to be done carefully and deliberately and in a way that keeps patient care the top priority,” said Bethlehem EMS President Timothy Leach.
Delmar EMS Chief Operating Officer Steve Kroll said the agency is ready to begin working with Bethlehem EMS on answering calls as a single unit as of Jan. 1. The major challenge will be operationally integrating how the two agencies work, which he feels will take time.
“I think it is important to know that we have been talking together for years about ways to do things better together and this is a natural evolution of that process,” he said. “We think the emphasis the town is placing on (merging) right now is good and no one should view the EMS personnel as obstructing this process.”
Kroll said the town and taxpayers have been reaping the benefits of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of volunteer time. He said many volunteers have day jobs and families, so it can’t be expected for the consolidation to happen overnight.
Daily and Hannigan said they know it is unrealistic to expect a full merger of the two agencies within three months.
“The one thing I want to make sure comes across crystal clear is in no way, shape or form, is there any intention of this report denigrating the time, effort and passion of the volunteers who have been serving our community,” said Daily.
The Board of Ambulance Commissioners recommended the town apply for a temporary, two-year Certificate of Need so the two agencies could start providing services to the whole town.
Uniform training and equipment would begin to take place after a plan is formed. That would take time, as would negotiating a new contract for merged coverage.
“We want to share the best of what we do with our colleagues and they will bring their knowledge to us so we can learn as a whole,” said Kroll. “This is going to lead us to have one of the best EMS agencies a town of our size can have.”