SHERBURNE – Starting the first day of February, the Village of Sherburne ambulance began billing patients for its volunteer services with the hope that by sometime this summer, the municipality will begin hiring paid staff for its medical crew, according to Mayor William Acee.
The Village of Sherburne decided to make the transition to a municipal-based ambulance service from a volunteer one in February of 2009, citing potential EMS man power shortages.
The transition will allow Sherburne to pursue a revenue recovery system, which will eventually help them to hire part-time or full-time personnel during difficult-to-cover daytime hours.
“Right now, the goal is to accumulate funds, then hire someone,” said Acee.
On Oct. 19, the Village of Sherburne Board passed a unanimous resolution to separate the ambulance service from the fire department, because state regulations prohibit billing services from being part of a volunteer fire organization. Since October, the Village of Sherburne Emergency Medical Service (EMS) has operated independently in anticipation of billing patients, explained Acee.
“I agree that we need to start charging those who use the ambulance and I agree that we can’t ask the volunteers for more daytime coverage. However, I feel we can provide a quicker response time and do it on a more cost effective basis without adding more cost to taxpayers by adding additional village employees. As we go forward, we will be watching this cost,” he said.
Acee said the village currently paid around $38,000 in annual operational costs associated with the ambulance in just maintaining equipment.
He said that a combination of increased burdens of mandated training for EMS personnel and the lack of new volunteers threaten to undermined the capabilities of the ambulance service, which prompted the village to step in.
“If locally we did not address the problem with our own fire department, we’d have to go outside the village and contract with someone like Norwich EMS or Cooperstown Medical Transport to meet our needs,” said Acee. “The board is committed to timely ambulance service and cost effectiveness.”
Acknowledging the service could no longer survive solely on the long-term contributions of a handful of volunteers, Acee also noted that it could not survive without their contributions, either.
He said although the village was looking to hire medical staff for the ambulance, much of the duties required to operate the service at night or on weekends and finding qualified drivers would still involve the same volunteers who have always contributed to the local EMS.
Acee said the village was looking to hire a paramedic for the service, but it would also have to look into hiring a driver.
“If there’s a call and the paid staff is waiting around for a volunteer to drive the ambulance, that’s not good. We need to understand what we’re looking at, one employee or two employees?” he said.
Acee said although he believes the village should take temporary control of the ambulance service, he had reservations about running it as a long-term government operation.
“I’m a fan of small government and I don’t think it’s a time to add additional village employees. It’s more expensive for us to hire someone than it would be for a non-profit organization,” he said.
Acee explained that employees under the village had state-mandated benefits and retirement costs and were “defined benefit” instead of “contribution benefit.”
“In a defined benefit, we’ll offer you this and we have to meet that, no matter what our finances are. In a contribution system, you put in this and we put in that much, whatever you save, you get,” he said.
“Right now we’re planning on hiring people under the village umbrella but it’s not cast in stone to stay that way. As the state’s financial issues continue to grow and the money gets tighter, we want to make sure we leave doors open. No one knows where this economy is going,” he said. “I think we should lean towards one day having a non-profit organization run the ambulance that we contract with. It would be more cost efficient.”
Acee pointed to the Village of Greene, which currently operates a non-profit ambulance service, as an example. Acee said an agreement could be reached with a potential non-profit group to use some village resources and volunteers, but it would handle staffing and other associated costs based on its own revenue stream.
“The difficult part is setting it up, but if it’s done right, it will sustain itself.”
Acee said he and the village board will revisit the issue and make further decisions on the future of Sherburne’s EMS based on a number of variables that still needed to be worked out.
“It’s important to the village, that regardless of anyone’s ability to pay, call the ambulance when you need it,” he said.