CMT to operate ambulances out of Superior site
NORWICH – Aside from the gap in coverage created when Superior Ambulance pulled out of Chenango County, Cooperstown Medical Transport (CMT) also plans to fill the one-time EMS provider’s old space, too.
Margaret McGowan, CMT’s chief financial officer, confirmed Friday that her company has rented Superior’s Norwich station on East River Road near Woods Corners.
CMT expects to move into Superior’s garage shortly after Jan. 1; however, ambulances can’t start running full-time from that location until the building receives regulatory approval from the state Department of Health, said McGowan. That review could take several weeks or longer.
“We wanted approval yesterday,” McGowan said. “But this is just how the system works.”
CMT squads covering Chenango County are currently operating out of Sidney and Oneonta using a temporary emergency permit.
The company expects to be recommended for a permanent “Certificate of Need” (CON) – a permit all emergency services providers must have in order to legally expand their coverage into a jurisdiction – by the Southern Tier Regional EMS council in Binghamton Jan. 10. Based on that recommendation, the state Department of Health would then have 30 days to issue or deny the CON.
“I don’t see any reason why we won’t receive the certificate,” said McGowan. “There has been nothing negative said about us coming here, at least not that I know of.”
The permanent certificate is issued separately from the awaited building and equipment approvals.
McGowan also said she plans to meet with officials at the county emergency center after the new year to map out a dispatch protocol.
“We need to talk about communications,” said McGowan. “We need to figure out how CMT is going to be dispatched by the county communications center.”
The county dispatch essentially dictates what and how many 911 calls CMT gets, McGowan said, and that weighs heavily on the success or failure of a private ambulance.
Superior stopped running ambulances in Chenango County in October, citing a lack of profitable calls. Prior to leaving, it had covered – both contractually and as needed under mutual aid – around 2,000 ambulance calls per year; the majority of those were in outlying volunteer fire districts that currently lack available paramedics and EMS coverage, like New Berlin, Pharsalia, McDonough and Smyrna.
In the hopes of becoming a secondary or primary provider where needed in rural areas, CMT plans to meet with numerous fire and town officials throughout the county to discuss coverage, and has already spoken with government and fire officials in the towns of New Berlin and Columbus.
McDonough Fire Chief Mike Beckwith said he and other volunteer squads welcome a sit-down with CMT, with the hopes they can provide consistent and quality EMS coverage.
“I hope what they can do is provide us with an ambulance service like we had with Superior,” Beckwith said. “We just don’t have the numbers of people needed to run our EMS squad anymore.”
Beckwith said CMT could fill a much-needed gap in McDonough and other towns where they lack highly-trained and certified paramedics. It could also relieve the departments, like Oxford, Norwich and Greene, that do have regularly available EMTs that have had to pick up increased call loads since Superior left.
“It’s going to help immensely,” he said. “Because there are times when everyone needs help.”
McDonough depended heavily on Superior and in 2006 contracted the ambulance as its primary EMS provider for emergencies in the town.
No deals or coverage contracts have yet been struck with any towns or fire districts, said McGowan.
As good as Superior was, Beckwith said there are still questions about the long-term plans of a profit-driven private ambulance.
“We thought things were fine and then Superior pulled out and caught us all off guard,” said Beckwith. “There’s still a question: will CMT do the same thing? What are their plans? We don’t want the same thing to happen all over again.”
The loss of the Superior highlighted what many say is a severe volunteer EMS shortage in Chenango County and left other departments, like the City of Norwich, Oxford and Greene, to handle an excess of calls outside their coverage areas.
To offset the volunteer decline, county Fire Coordinator Matt Beckwith proposed a “fly car” system where the county would employ paramedics to supplement needy districts using taxpayer dollars. That plan is still under review at the county level.
Margaret McGowan, CMT’s chief financial officer, confirmed Friday that her company has rented Superior’s Norwich station on East River Road near Woods Corners.
CMT expects to move into Superior’s garage shortly after Jan. 1; however, ambulances can’t start running full-time from that location until the building receives regulatory approval from the state Department of Health, said McGowan. That review could take several weeks or longer.
“We wanted approval yesterday,” McGowan said. “But this is just how the system works.”
CMT squads covering Chenango County are currently operating out of Sidney and Oneonta using a temporary emergency permit.
The company expects to be recommended for a permanent “Certificate of Need” (CON) – a permit all emergency services providers must have in order to legally expand their coverage into a jurisdiction – by the Southern Tier Regional EMS council in Binghamton Jan. 10. Based on that recommendation, the state Department of Health would then have 30 days to issue or deny the CON.
“I don’t see any reason why we won’t receive the certificate,” said McGowan. “There has been nothing negative said about us coming here, at least not that I know of.”
The permanent certificate is issued separately from the awaited building and equipment approvals.
McGowan also said she plans to meet with officials at the county emergency center after the new year to map out a dispatch protocol.
“We need to talk about communications,” said McGowan. “We need to figure out how CMT is going to be dispatched by the county communications center.”
The county dispatch essentially dictates what and how many 911 calls CMT gets, McGowan said, and that weighs heavily on the success or failure of a private ambulance.
Superior stopped running ambulances in Chenango County in October, citing a lack of profitable calls. Prior to leaving, it had covered – both contractually and as needed under mutual aid – around 2,000 ambulance calls per year; the majority of those were in outlying volunteer fire districts that currently lack available paramedics and EMS coverage, like New Berlin, Pharsalia, McDonough and Smyrna.
In the hopes of becoming a secondary or primary provider where needed in rural areas, CMT plans to meet with numerous fire and town officials throughout the county to discuss coverage, and has already spoken with government and fire officials in the towns of New Berlin and Columbus.
McDonough Fire Chief Mike Beckwith said he and other volunteer squads welcome a sit-down with CMT, with the hopes they can provide consistent and quality EMS coverage.
“I hope what they can do is provide us with an ambulance service like we had with Superior,” Beckwith said. “We just don’t have the numbers of people needed to run our EMS squad anymore.”
Beckwith said CMT could fill a much-needed gap in McDonough and other towns where they lack highly-trained and certified paramedics. It could also relieve the departments, like Oxford, Norwich and Greene, that do have regularly available EMTs that have had to pick up increased call loads since Superior left.
“It’s going to help immensely,” he said. “Because there are times when everyone needs help.”
McDonough depended heavily on Superior and in 2006 contracted the ambulance as its primary EMS provider for emergencies in the town.
No deals or coverage contracts have yet been struck with any towns or fire districts, said McGowan.
As good as Superior was, Beckwith said there are still questions about the long-term plans of a profit-driven private ambulance.
“We thought things were fine and then Superior pulled out and caught us all off guard,” said Beckwith. “There’s still a question: will CMT do the same thing? What are their plans? We don’t want the same thing to happen all over again.”
The loss of the Superior highlighted what many say is a severe volunteer EMS shortage in Chenango County and left other departments, like the City of Norwich, Oxford and Greene, to handle an excess of calls outside their coverage areas.
To offset the volunteer decline, county Fire Coordinator Matt Beckwith proposed a “fly car” system where the county would employ paramedics to supplement needy districts using taxpayer dollars. That plan is still under review at the county level.
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