Ambulance Coverage

Town of Westhampton, MaDecember 17, 2012

Overview Current Contract

•Town of Westhampton signed agreement with Northampton- 5 yr. contract 2010-2015

•Provided for ALS response and transport

•Allowed for our personnel to join Northampton personnel in all continuing education training and refresher training free of charge

Financial Provisions of Contract

•FY 2011- $10,800

•FY 2012- $12,600

•FY 2013- $14,400

•FY 2014- $16,200

•FY 2015- $18,000

•Total over 5 years- $72,000

•Remaining Amount- $34,200

Potential Options

•Easthampton Fire

•Hilltown Ambulance

•Highland Ambulance

•Alert Ambulance

•Pioneer Valley Ambulace

•Westhampton Fire/EMS

•Combination of above resources

Easthampton Fire

•Paramedic level Service

•Limited Staffing

•Current City Leadership-history of terminating contract due to expense

Hilltown Ambulance

•Regionalized service

•Paramedic level Service 8hrs/day

•Longer response times

•Unknown response capabilities after midnight

•Limited resources

Highland Ambulance

•Regionalized service

•Paramedic level service 0800-midnight

•On call personnel after midnight

•Long response times/winter time, etc.

•Limited resources

Pioneer Valley EMS

•Sister company of MedStar Ambulance

•Base in Northampton

•4 ambulances

•Paramedic level response capabilities

•Ability to provide additional resources if needed

Westhampton Fire/EMS Option

•Westhampton Fire Department members provide service

•Work in conjunction with another ambulance partner

•Basic Level response capabilities

Ambulance Committee Recommendation

• Westhampton Fire Based Ambulance transport service-Basic level

• Hours of Operation for transports- 4PM-Midnight / 7 days / week

• Midnight-4PM- Transport services provided by Pioneer Valley Ambulance Service

• Westhampton EMT’s continue to respond to every call regardless of hour

Call History-Trends

Total Call Volume- Fiscal Year

•FY 10- 67

•FY 11-64

•FY 12- 82

Calls between 4PM-Midnight

•FY 10- 22 or 33%

•FY 11- 26 or 41%

•FY 12- 41 or 50%

Start Up Costs

•Ambulance- $3,000 funded from Firefighters Association-Easthampton Ambulance

•AmB Pro License- ePCR reporting- $2,995 start up cost

•License fee- $600/year

•Food & Drug license- $300

•Additional Insurance- $1,200

•Stretcher & Stair Chair- to be funded by grant funds

•Prelimary start up costs to Town-$5,095

Funding For Start Up Costs

•Utilize $15,000 of funds contractually committed for FY 14 ambulance contract

•Funds to initially be drawn from free cash

Revenue Projections

•10 ALS calls @ $1,000/call= $10,000

•5 BLS calls @ $800/call= $4,000

•Total billed= $14,000

•Total collected- $10,500 (75% collection)

On-going cost/year • EMS Billing- 4% collected revenue ($420/yr. based on revenue collections of $10,500)

• Supplies- $1,000

• Fuel- $250 (15 calls @ $15/call)

• Vehicle repairs & maintenance-$1,000

• Personnel- $1,200 ($40/call/person). This would take effect July 1, 2014.

• ALS intercept fee- $2,750 (based on 10 ALS intercepts /yr.)

• Annual insurance increase- $1,200

• Ambu Pro- $600 beginning in FY 15

• Training/recertification- $1,500

• Total costs- $9,920

Operations (4PM-Midnight)

• Westhampton Ambulance primary transports unit

• Primary ALS intercept comes from Pioneer Valley Ambulance

• If Westhampton unable to staff ambulance, Pioneer Valley Ambulance becomes primary transport unit

Operations Cont.

• ALS calls (4PM-Midnight)

– All calls will be emergency medical dispatched (EMD’d) by Northampton Control

– During this time frame, if determined by Northampton Control Dispatchers that it is an ALS level call, they will automatically and immediately call for an ALS intercept

– ALS intercept service will meet up with our personnel and supply advanced life support equipment and supplies while Westhampton transports patient and assists with patient care

Operations Cont.

• Midnight – 4PM

– Pioneer Valley Ambulance- Primary ambulance transport service

– If Pioneer Valley Ambulance unavailable to respond, next ambulance service on mutual aid matrix will be called

– Westhampton EMT’s toned and will respond as we do today

– Provide initial stabilization and treatment and transfer care over to transport ambulance service

Benefits

• Provides increased level of service to community

• Decrease transport times from time of incident to arrival of patient at a health care facility

• Provides for improved continuity of care

• Allows us to take care of our own

• Provides for motivation and recruitment of additional personnel

• Enable personnel to increase skill level

• Eliminates community from continually being a bargaining piece for other services

• Eliminates current retain fees from other services that will continually go up each year

• Will provide revenue stream to help offset costs for providing expected services to the community

Action Items

• Personnel begin orientation at Cooley Dickinson Hospital Emergency Room (minimum 4 hours / person)- January 2013

• Personnel begin ride time with ambulance services to get ride time experience (minimum 5 calls each)- January 2013

• Development policies & procedures- January 2013

• Procurement ambulance, stretcher, stair chair- April 2013

• Development affiliation agreement CDH-April 2013

• Development of provider agreement with Pioneer Valley Ambulance- April 2013

Action Items Cont.

• Apply for license- April 2013

• Establish mutual aid and intercept agreements- April 2013

• Internal training- Review State OEMS protocols, Ambu Pro training, report writing documentation, stretcher operations, radio reports, etc.---Ongoing

• Establish a EMS reserve receipt account for ambulance revenues to be later utilized for EMS operations

• Update insurance coverage on vehicles

• Implementation- July 1, 2013

Proponents of this System

Every Westhampton EMT

Dr. Raymond Conway-Medical Director, Cooley Dickinson Hospital

Pioneer Valley Ambulance- met with management staff numerous times and personnel have already come out to Westhampton

Northampton Control- Tom Dunphy, Director