NEW AMBULANCE SERVICE TO TAKE OVER LVPA AREA
Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News
05-05-10 - 10:35 a.m. - The days are numbered for a volunteer ambulance service in New Lebanon and part of Canaan.
Four paid emergency medical service providers have expressed interest in serving the town, and officials with Canaan and New Lebanon are expected, as early as Monday, to establish a process for determining who will provide the ambulance service.
Lebanon Valley Protective Association (LVPA) member and former emergency medical technician (EMT) Bud Godfroy, who had tried to drum up support for a volunteer service, told ccSCOOP on Tuesday that it has become clear that a volunteer ambulance service would not be sustainable for the district currently covered by the LVPA. The LVPA fire service will continue.
“I didn’t get any response from the people—the former volunteers I called,” he said, noting that between 20 and 30 volunteers would be needed to make a service work. “Unless you are up to 24 to 36 volunteers, it’s really out of the picture,” Godfroy said.
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Photo: Richard Lindmark/Columbia Page
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The paid services seeking to take over the coverage district are Valatie Rescue Squad, Greenport Rescue Squad, Northern Dutchess Paramedics, and Empire, Godfroy said. The latter currently provides daytime EMTs for the LVPA. Greenport Rescue had previously provided the service, as had Northern Dutchess’s predecessor agency, Southern Columbia County Ambulance.
Canaan Supervisor Richard Keaveney told ccSCOOP that his town and New Lebanon will form a committee to review the proposals and interview the interested agencies. “The committee will interview each of these companies and negotiate,” he said. “We will go forward, and it will be an expedited process to make sure that we have ambulance service. LVPA has been very helpful, even if we don't end up with something by the end of the year, they are willing to continue on a quarterly basis to help.”
Godfroy, who had chaired a committee to explore options for the future of the ambulance service in the district, said he reached out to paid services to gauge interest in serving the area after finding no one willing to volunteer.
The fate of ambulance coverage in the Town of New Lebanon and in Canaan east of County Route 5 was thrown into turmoil when it came to light that state law prohibited volunteer fire companies from billing for emergency medical services. The LVPA ambulance service is part of the fire company and had billed to cover about a third of its annual budget.
Without the ability to bill for its medical service, the towns of Canaan and New Lebanon would have to make up a $100,000 shortfall in the LVPA’s annual budget of approximately $343,561, Godfroy explained. Since that was not an option, the LVPA will give up its certificate of need for ambulance coverage for the district, allowing another provider to come in.
"I think it was the correct decision on LVPA's leadership,” said Keaveney.
The successor agency will be allowed to use the LVPA firehouse to store its ambulance for a short period, but Godfroy said a long-term location for the new ambulance provider will have to be identified. It also needs to be determined what level of care the new ambulance provider will offer.
All four interested agencies have paramedics and could provide paramedic-level care, also known as advanced life support—the highest emergency level of care available In New York State outside of a hospital. That would be a step up from the current basic life-support service offered by LVPA.
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