EMS Task Force: Ambulance response times have improved in 2023

Photo by Tom Rivers: Scott Buffin, deputy director of the Emergency Management Office in Orleans County, speaks during Tuesday evening meeting of the Orleans County Association of Municipalities at the White Birch in Lyndonville.

LYNDONVILLE – Ambulances have been faster to respond to priority one calls in 2023, even with the Main Street lift bridge closed in Albion which has adding 2 minutes to some of the calls in central Orleans County.

The average response time in the county in 2022 was 12 minutes, 18 seconds for priority one calls. For the first six months of 2023, the response time was 11:47. In 2021, it was 11:42.

Scott Buffin, deputy director of the Emergency Management Office in Orleans County, went over the data on Tuesday during the meeting for the Orleans County Association of Municipalities at the White Birch in Lyndonville.

He also highlighted the number of dropped calls is down significantly from 323 in 2022 to a projected 160 this year. It was 80 for the first six month of 2023.

“It is huge to see that,” Buffin said about the reduction in dropped calls.

The report on the ambulance calls and response time also was shared during last week’s EMS Task Force meeting. But only representatives from the villages of Lyndonville and Holley attended that session, with no officials from Albion and Medina or any of the 10 towns. The fire companies in the county all had representation at that meeting last week for the task force.

Ambulance coverage has been a hot topic in the county the past two years with the decline in volunteer ambulance corps and the struggles of non-profit providers such as COVA in Albion.

This is the first year Monroe Ambulance has the contract to be the primary ambulance provider for four towns in central Orleans – Albion, Barre, Gaines and Carlton. Central Orleans Volunteer Ambulance shut down late last year. Mercy Flight EMS has taken over COVA operations, but Mercy doesn’t have a contract for service in Orleans County.

Mercy, however, has been dispatched for 168 EMS calls in the first six months of 2023. Monroe has received 1,449 calls and the Medina Fire Department, 1,147.

The Kendall Fire Department’s ambulance ceased operations at the end of 2022, the last fire department with a volunteer ambulance in Orleans County. Clarendon, Holley, Carlton, Shelby and Albion all have discontinued the ambulance service, citing the time demands on volunteers for training and responding to calls.

There also was very little revenue for the volunteer fire departments for the service. And the non-profit organizations said they didn’t get enough in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates for the service.

Monroe also is the main ambulance provider for Clarendon and Murray, and now in Kendall.

The company is seeking a $300,000 contract from the seven towns in eastern and central Orleans to continue coverage in 2023, with an ambulance based in Albion and another one in either Holley or Brockport.

Mercy Flight EMS also wants the contract for 2023 with two dedicated advanced life support ambulances in the county as part of a $180,000 contract agreement with the seven towns.

The town boards are working to approve a contract next month, with Monroe expected to again be the provider.

Tony Cammarata, the Kendall town supervisor, said he wants one more year with Monroe to study the response times and level of service. He wants to put the service out to an RFP (request for proposals) for the year 2025.

County Legislator John Fitzak said he would prefer to see a contract from the towns with both ambulance providers so there would be more dedicated ambulances eastern and central Orleans. Monroe and Mercy Flight could coordinate among the two how they would respond to calls.

“Work with both of them,” he said. “Don’t pit them against each other. If you work with both we’d have four ambulances instead of two.”

One concerning piece in the data, Buffin said, is there are often times when there isn’t an ambulance available, especially in the Albion area. If an ambulance is on a call or transporting someone, Buffin said there are then times with no immediate coverage. He noted the data shows the average amount of time per call for ambulance to be in service is 1 hour, 36 minutes.

The number of calls is way up in the county in the past two decades, from 2,876 in 2004 to a projected 5,300 this year. There were 5,620 calls in 2022 and 5,685 in 2021.

“The calls have gone up and the providers have gone down,” Fitzak said.

County officials were asked if they see the county taking the lead for a county-wide service in the future. Barre Town Supervisor Sean Pogue and Cammarata from Kendall said that may make the most sense.

“We’d much rather have the county take the lead on this,” Cammarata said.

County Legislator Ed Morgan said he doesn’t see that happening anytime soon. He noted the Medina Fire Department does a great job handling calls in western Orleans – the villages of Medina and Lyndonville and towns of Shelby, Ridgeway and Yates.

Other counties, such as Livingston, have a county-wide ambulance service. Wyoming County is going to start one, too.

Matt Jackson, the Medina fire chief, was asked if Medina would consider expanding to service more of the county. Jackson said not this time because staffing is one of the biggest challenges in providing EMS service, with paramedics and EMTs in demand. Those professionals suffer a high burnout rate of about 5 years in the profession.

“One of the biggest issues is manpower,” Jackson said.