PLAN TO BOOST COLUMBIA COUNTY EMS SYSTEM

Mike McCagg

ccSCOOP News

11-05-09 - 3:13 p.m. - Many Columbia County residents will soon have emergency medical personnel available a little quicker than before. After years of debate, the county is ready to launch a program that will see Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and paramedics relocated to cover areas where medical personnel are tied up and unavailable, meaning emergency medical attention can be delivered to people in life-threatening situations. “The whole object is if Copake is out of resources, Greenport can now move to the district line, but they are still one heck of a distance away if you have a cardiac arrest in south Hillsdale,” said county Emergency Medical Services Coordinator P.J. Keeler.

Having EMS personnel at the ready in a central part of a rescue squad district is vital since, according to national emergency medical experts, cardiac arrest patients who do not receive defibrillation within eight minutes of a heart attack are almost certain not to survive.

Under the county plan approved by the Board of Supervisors in October, the county 911 center will be able to relocate ambulance crews to areas of need in participating rescue squad districts. The plan, which involves the county receiving a Certificate of Need from the state, is currently under review by state officials, and Keeler and Board of Supervisors chairman Art Baer both say it is expected to be approved.

Columbia County would be the first in the state to implement the plan, which will relax  “archaic” regulations that currently forbid EMS providers from standing by in each other’s districts. Under current regulations, ambulance agencies can only request another agency to standby on their district lines. Even, said Keeler, if Greenport Rescue Squad requested Valatie to standby in Greenport’s headquarters and Valatie agreed, they would be forbidden by state regulations from doing so. The only time Valatie can respond within Greenport’s district is when they are answering an emergency call.

“We have struggled for many years on how to keep the squads with their individual identities and keep them in business while addressing the need for improved response times,” Keeler said. “Community-based rescue squads are important. They know the people in the community and know the area, and it’s important to us to maintain that.”

At the same time economic factors have placed huge burdens on rescue squads in the county. As the number of volunteers has declined as a result of increased state mandates and the number of emergency calls has increased, squads have been forced to hire EMTs and paramedics. In the last twenty-five years, the county has seen a complete shift from rescue squads that are all-volunteer to squads that are a combination of volunteers and paid personnel. This situation has resulted in rising costs not only for the rescue squads but also for the communities they serve.

The change has been tough and has even led to the disbanding of the Southern Columbia Ambulance Squad, whose district in Livingston, Germantown, Clermont, and part of Taghkanic is now covered by Northern Dutchess Paramedics.

Keeler said the new plan will allow all of the rescue squads to keep their identities and may also increase funding. That is because, through the program, the county will pay the squads the full cost of the emergency calls they answer in other districts, instead of the partial payments they now receive through insurance companies.

While this will mean a cost for county taxpayers, which is estimated to be in the neighborhood of $250,000 a year, it is far less than the cost to the individual town taxpayers that would be incurred if the rescue squads each had to add another crew or paramedic to cover the rising number of EMS calls, Keeler said. According to Keeler, four squads in the county have so far agreed to take part in the program: Greenport Rescue, Valatie Rescue, Northern Dutchess, and Lebanon Valley Protective Association. Baer and Keeler both say that even if the remaining squads--Community Rescue (Copake), Chatham Rescue, and Philmont Rescue--don’t sign on, the program will be launched. “In reality, there is a supermajority of squads who have signed on. We will go ahead with it regardless if they are all signed on or not,” said Baer. That is not to say that the county can or will force a non-participating agency to relocate or to have that agency receive unrequested assistance from another EMS provider in the county.

“What this is all about is becoming more consumer responsive and helping people in times of medical crisis,” said Keeler. “We think this plan will do that.”