Residents could wait an hour for ambulance service in rural areas
CHENANGO COUNTY – Chenango County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers are struggling to fill gaps in their coverage, and are warning that depending on call volume certain areas could wait up to an hour for an ambulance.
According to Chenango County Fire Bureau Coordinator Matthew Beckwith, local EMS providers have been discussing an issue with service coverage for about a year and a half, but officials are still working on a solution.
“We knew there were issues with coverage, and the system that we had in place had AMR with two ambulances in Norwich, Norwich was providing a service, and Sherburne was a paid service,” said Beckwith. “Then New Berlin ended up cutting back to about 18 hours a day.”
“AMR also changed their staffing requirements around September 9, and notified us that they weren’t going to be posting in Norwich as often as they were before.”
Beckwith said approximately 15 years ago Chenango County was flush with EMS providers, but slowly as volunteerism died down communities started to drop their ambulance services, relying on other municipalities with successful programs.
He said eventually paid providers moved in to fill the void, but now that many of those paid providers have left the area some communities rely solely on mutual aid, or help from other municipalities' services for medical coverage.
“What happens is, Norwich runs to McDonough, Oxford, Pharsalia, Smyrna, Pitcher, Cincinnatus, Greene has gone all the way to Afton, and New Berlin has gone into Otsego County, into Morris and different places like that,” he added. “Every community is feeling it, and the problem is the response time.”
“Before you would have an ambulance on scene in 20 minutes, but now it could be an hour.”
Beckwith said a person suffering from a heart attack should ideally be at the hospital within an hour of having the attack, but because ambulances are coming from the opposite side of the county, or even out of the county, it could double that length of time.
He said when AMR was posted in Norwich, and all of the positions were filled, the EMS system in Chenango County was still very fragile. He added that now paid services like Norwich, Greene, and Sherburne are being stretched beyond their limits.
“About two years ago we had an accident in Mount Upton, and we had six patients there as part of a two car motor vehicle accident,” said Beckwith. “We had to call two ambulances in from outside of the county because all of ours were unavailable, and they were coming out of Utica and Binghamton.”
“This isn’t necessarily a new problem, but when AMR did their new posting assignments it broke the wagon.”
Beckwith said depending on where ambulances are being sent from, and their availability, the patient’s well being is the number one issue, and they’re trying to work out a solution. He said every moment someone spends waiting for an ambulance to arrive could impact that person’s quality of life.
“There are a lot of communities in this county, some that have ambulances but don't have providers, and some that don’t have either,” he added. “Our first problem is that we don’t have providers, and our second problem is that we’ve got agencies that have given up their ambulances, and we have to fill that void.”
“Smyrna, McDonough, Pharsalia, Mount Upton, and Afton don’t have ambulances currently. Bainbridge has a couple members, but they are struggling to answer calls so they’re being covered by AMR.”
City of Norwich Fire Department Chief Jan Papelino said as of November 30, 2020 Norwich has covered more than 400 calls outside of the City of Norwich this year with approximately 214 of those calls being mutual aid.
“This is a key point with mutual aid, mutual aid is reciprocal, meaning if you go there, they come here,” said Papelino. “Our number one recipient of mutual aid is Oxford, with 87 calls there this year.”
He said the Norwich Fire Department’s first duty is to the residents of the City of Norwich and the taxpayers. He added that the Norwich FD is being stretched too far.
Beckwith said just looking at the coverage in the county, it's easy to see there’s an issue.
“If you were to look geographically at the county, other than Greene and South Otselic, there’s no other ambulances on the entire western half of the county,” said Beckwith. “If you look at the eastern side of the county, you have Afton and Bainbridge which we know are struggling, you have AMR, and New Berlin - that’s it.”
“It’s not the fault of the agency, it’s just the situation they have at hand, they just don’t have the providers.”
Beckwith said EMS providers around Chenango County are working together to try and figure out a solution, and more information will be released when available.
According to Chenango County Fire Bureau Coordinator Matthew Beckwith, local EMS providers have been discussing an issue with service coverage for about a year and a half, but officials are still working on a solution.
“We knew there were issues with coverage, and the system that we had in place had AMR with two ambulances in Norwich, Norwich was providing a service, and Sherburne was a paid service,” said Beckwith. “Then New Berlin ended up cutting back to about 18 hours a day.”
“AMR also changed their staffing requirements around September 9, and notified us that they weren’t going to be posting in Norwich as often as they were before.”
Beckwith said approximately 15 years ago Chenango County was flush with EMS providers, but slowly as volunteerism died down communities started to drop their ambulance services, relying on other municipalities with successful programs.
He said eventually paid providers moved in to fill the void, but now that many of those paid providers have left the area some communities rely solely on mutual aid, or help from other municipalities' services for medical coverage.
“What happens is, Norwich runs to McDonough, Oxford, Pharsalia, Smyrna, Pitcher, Cincinnatus, Greene has gone all the way to Afton, and New Berlin has gone into Otsego County, into Morris and different places like that,” he added. “Every community is feeling it, and the problem is the response time.”
“Before you would have an ambulance on scene in 20 minutes, but now it could be an hour.”
Beckwith said a person suffering from a heart attack should ideally be at the hospital within an hour of having the attack, but because ambulances are coming from the opposite side of the county, or even out of the county, it could double that length of time.
He said when AMR was posted in Norwich, and all of the positions were filled, the EMS system in Chenango County was still very fragile. He added that now paid services like Norwich, Greene, and Sherburne are being stretched beyond their limits.
“About two years ago we had an accident in Mount Upton, and we had six patients there as part of a two car motor vehicle accident,” said Beckwith. “We had to call two ambulances in from outside of the county because all of ours were unavailable, and they were coming out of Utica and Binghamton.”
“This isn’t necessarily a new problem, but when AMR did their new posting assignments it broke the wagon.”
Beckwith said depending on where ambulances are being sent from, and their availability, the patient’s well being is the number one issue, and they’re trying to work out a solution. He said every moment someone spends waiting for an ambulance to arrive could impact that person’s quality of life.
“There are a lot of communities in this county, some that have ambulances but don't have providers, and some that don’t have either,” he added. “Our first problem is that we don’t have providers, and our second problem is that we’ve got agencies that have given up their ambulances, and we have to fill that void.”
“Smyrna, McDonough, Pharsalia, Mount Upton, and Afton don’t have ambulances currently. Bainbridge has a couple members, but they are struggling to answer calls so they’re being covered by AMR.”
City of Norwich Fire Department Chief Jan Papelino said as of November 30, 2020 Norwich has covered more than 400 calls outside of the City of Norwich this year with approximately 214 of those calls being mutual aid.
“This is a key point with mutual aid, mutual aid is reciprocal, meaning if you go there, they come here,” said Papelino. “Our number one recipient of mutual aid is Oxford, with 87 calls there this year.”
He said the Norwich Fire Department’s first duty is to the residents of the City of Norwich and the taxpayers. He added that the Norwich FD is being stretched too far.
Beckwith said just looking at the coverage in the county, it's easy to see there’s an issue.
“If you were to look geographically at the county, other than Greene and South Otselic, there’s no other ambulances on the entire western half of the county,” said Beckwith. “If you look at the eastern side of the county, you have Afton and Bainbridge which we know are struggling, you have AMR, and New Berlin - that’s it.”
“It’s not the fault of the agency, it’s just the situation they have at hand, they just don’t have the providers.”
Beckwith said EMS providers around Chenango County are working together to try and figure out a solution, and more information will be released when available.
dived wound factual legitimately delightful goodness fit rat some lopsidedly far when.
Slung alongside jeepers hypnotic legitimately some iguana this agreeably triumphant pointedly far
jeepers unscrupulous anteater attentive noiseless put less greyhound prior stiff ferret unbearably cracked oh.
So sparing more goose caribou wailed went conveniently burned the the the and that save that adroit gosh and sparing armadillo grew some overtook that magnificently that
Circuitous gull and messily squirrel on that banally assenting nobly some much rakishly goodness that the darn abject hello left because unaccountably spluttered unlike a aurally since contritely thanks