HADLEY — Both from the perspective of providing medical care as quickly as possible to residents and visitors and being fiscally prudent, the town’s decision last year to turn to a private ambulance service is one that appears to be paying dividends, according to Hadley officials.
Town Administrator David Nixon said last Friday that just over a year since Action EMS began handling ambulance calls, the arrangement has been beneficial.
“From what I have observed, the ambulance service has been highly successful,” Nixon said. “It has served residents and business of Hadley very well.”
Since June 29, 2018, Action EMS paramedics have been stationed around the clock at the public safety complex on East Street, being dispatched out from the communications center housed in the building.
Previously, Hadley had depended on Amherst ambulances, but town leaders were looking for a way to speed up ambulance response time.
So far, the average response times have been cut almost in half, said Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel.
“It’s significant,” Spanknebel said of the improved response times, while acknowledging that the statistics are still being compiled.
That reduction has been accomplished by having the Action ambulance centrally located at the East Street safety complex, while Action can also send an ambulance from a substation on Route 9 next to the Coolidge Bridge 16 hours each day.
Select Board member Molly Keegan said the main desire in moving to a private service was providing the same level of medical attention for Hadley while getting ambulances to calls faster. She said she feels this has happened, with people no longer having to wait 10 to 15 minutes for an ambulance from Amherst center or the North station in Amherst.
“We expected with any transition that there would have been bumps in the road, but have been pleasantly surprised at how smooth the transition went,” Keegan said.
Spanknebel said he doesn’t believe there has been a loss in quality, based on letters received from patients and other information, and when issues have cropped up, an oversight committee has been ready to address them.
He appreciates that Action is part of the public safety team. “Action has really melded in,” Spanknebel said. Firefighters on duty often go out the door with the ambulance at the same time.
Meantime, the call volume of about 1,000 annually that was projected in the contract has actually been exceeded, which is proving beneficial to the town due to a reimbursement provision.
Hadley pays Action EMS a monthly fee that this year, in fiscal year 2020, is $282,250, or more than double the $140,000 assessment that the town had been paying Amherst to provide the ambulance service in fiscal year 2018.
But Keegan notes that when negotiating with Amherst for a fiscal year 2019 contract, Amherst was asking for $200,000, which would have increased to $240,000 beginning July 1, 2019. Hadley’s first deal with Action EMS began at $267.500.
Nixon said the contract has Action keeping proceeds for insurance reimbursements up to $700,000 a year. Anything above that gets accounted for and, based on a formula, the surplus goes to Hadley in the form of a rebate.
It is too early to know how much money will be returning to town coffers, as Action has 105 days from July 1 to provide that information. Officials should learn in early October how much revenue the ambulance produced for the town.
“There’s certainly not a shortfall,” Nixon said. “We’ve hit the threshold we were looking for.”
The loss of Hadley has affected Amherst, where Town Manager Paul Bockelman projected in the budget plan adopted by Town Council that there was $600,000 in lost revenues, combining both patients’ insurance money and the annual contract with Hadley.
But even though it’s been challenging to not have that available, Amherst has been able to maintain staffing in the fire department. Amherst has also benefited by reduced stress on its firefighter/paramedics.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.