Mercy Flight willing to provide ambulance services in Orleans – at lower cost than Monroe

Courtesy of Mercy Flight EMS: Mercy Flight would keep ambulances at existing bases at 239 South Main St., Albion; 8050 Call Parkway in Batavia; and 1483 Lake Road North, Hamlin. The orange rings represent an estimated 10-minute response time radii and the red rings would be an estimated 15 minutes for response time.

ALBION – Mercy Flight EMS has proposed to provide ambulance services for six towns in Orleans County at a lower cost than Monroe Ambulance, which has the contract for central Orleans and Murray and Clarendon in eastern Orleans this year.

Mercy Flight has submitted a proposal to the towns to provide two dedicated advanced life support ambulances in a six-town block of Orleans at a cost of $180,000 for 2024.

Mercy Flight would commit to responding to emergencies within 20 minutes “at least 90 percent of the time,” Scott Wooton, executive vice president of Mercy Flight, wrote to Bridget O’Toole, attorney for the Town of Barre and one of the negotiators in the new ambulance contract.

His letter was dated Aug. 15. He said that response time is barring inclement weather “or other unforeseeable or unavoidable obstacles.” Mercy Flight would commit to responding within 25 minutes for non-emergencies at least 90 percent of the time for the six towns of Albion, Barre, Carlton, Clarendon, Gaines and Murray.

Wooton said Mercy Flight would keep ambulances at existing bases at 239 South Main St., Albion; 8050 Call Parkway in Batavia; and 1483 Lake Road North, Hamlin.

Murray town officials on Monday during their board meeting characterized Mercy Flight as not being interested in the contract to serve the Orleans towns in 2024. Wooton said Mercy Flight would very much like to have the contract.

“Mercy Flight EMS has remained committed to Orleans County and has great interest in contracting with the towns,” he said today.

Monroe Ambulance is seeking $300,000 to serve the six towns as well as Kendall. The company would commit to one ALS ambulance in Albion and a basic life support from either Holley or Brockport.

Mercy Flight took over the COVA ambulance base in Albion after the organization shut down late last year. Mercy Flight has kept the COVA employees throughout this year.

“Our Albion-based employees are all still active and are anxious to be able to serve their community once again,” Wooton said in an e-mail message. “They have been very flexible and we have been utilizing them in our other service areas temporarily, but they are all ready and waiting (and excited!) to return home on a full-time basis again. We would be pleased to have an opportunity to meet in person with the Town Supervisors and other stakeholders to answer any questions or concerns that they may have regarding what we can bring to the table.”