CHATHAM RESCUE SQUAD MOVES AHEAD WITH PLANS TO EXPAND INTO CANAAN,

NEW LEBANON

Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News

07-20-10 - Chatham Rescue Squad officials will join Canaan officials this week in looking at garage and sleeping space in the town, after being selected last week to take over the Lebanon Valley Protective Association's ambulance service district.
 
Squad Administrator Sara Johnson told ccSCOOP that a tour of a commercial facility located near the intersection of state Route 22 and 295 is planned for this week.

Last week, the Canaan and New Lebanon town boards selected neighboring emergency medical services (EMS) provider Chatham Rescue Squad to succeed the soon-to-be-defunct service provided by Lebanon Valley Protective Association. (The LVPA will continue to provide fire service coverage to its district).
 
Chatham Rescue is scheduled to take over the EMS coverage for the area starting on approximately January 1, said Canaan Supervisor Richard Keaveney. Chatham was selected from three finalists and five EMS agencies overall that had sought to take over the medical service for the northeastern portion of the county.

Even though Chatham was a late-comer, submitting a letter of interest to the towns after other providers had already stepped forward, officials said choosing Chatham Rescue to take over the district made the most sense. Chatham already covers the section of Canaan west of County Route 5 and was the closest EMS provider to the district.

Keaveney said the squad will still be required to create a physical presence in the district, which is leading to the tour this week of the commercial space.

“They have a spare garage and some space for beds (for the overnight shift) and other needs,” said the Canaan supervisor. If a deal can be reached, the commercial entity would lease the space to Chatham Rescue Squad, with the costs being covered in the contract that CRS will sign with the two towns.

As to the cost of the new service, Keaveney said Chatham, which provides advanced life support services (ALS), has agreed to provide the service for basically the same cost as the LVPA. Currently, Canaan is paying $112,389-a-year to the LVPA, which is a basic life support service (BLS) provider, with another approximately $120,000 being paid by New Lebanon.  

The fate of ambulance coverage in the two towns was thrown into turmoil earlier this year 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.

With no way to make up that costs, LVPA decided that it will give up its state-issued Certificate of Need for ambulance coverage for the district, clearing the way for another provider to come in.

LVPA is the second entity to stop providing medical coverage in the county in the past two decades.

In the late-1990s, the Southern Columbia County Ambulance Squad, also facing fiscal constraints, disbanded, with its coverage area in Livingston, Clermont, Germantown and parts of Gallatin and Taghkanic being taken over by the Rhinebeck-based Northern Dutchess Paramedics.