HADLEY — Less than two months into the town’s new emergency medical service, the private ambulance crews have already saved the life of a resident having a heart attack, assisted with a rescue on the Connecticut River following a boat crash and provided relief to firefighters battling a house fire.
Fire Chief Michael Spanknebel said the first eight weeks of Action EMS as the contracted ambulance service have gone well, with the paramedics who are stationed around the clock at the public safety complex on East Street becoming an important part of the fire, medical and police response team for Hadley.
“It has melded in perfectly since it started June 29,” Spanknebel said.
Action EMS CEO Michael Woronka agrees with this assessment.
“It’s turned into a very supportive collaboration, which has shown some real benefits for the town,” Woronka said.
Action EMS, the private ambulance service based in Wilmington, was hired earlier this year by the Select Board to take over the town’s ambulance service from the Amherst Fire Department, which had been the primary medical provider since 1947.
Under the $267,500 contract, a paramedic-level ambulance is parked inside one of the three bays at the public safety complex on East Street, with two full-time Action EMS staff on site at all times, while a non-dedicated basic level ambulance is stationed at the Action EMS garage on Route 9 near the Coolidge Bridge.
In July, the first full month for which data is available, Action EMS responded to 143 medical calls in town, of which 78 required transports to a hospital.
“The number of calls we’ve been responding to has been significant,” Spanknebel said.
Residents shouldn’t notice any difference from the care have received in the past from the Amherst Fire Department, Spanknebel said, though the hope is that responses will be quicker. When 911 medical calls come into the Hadley Communications Center, also housed in the safety complex, a dispatch goes out immediately to the paramedics, police and firefighters.
Woronka said data show that the average response time so far has been 4 minutes and 44 seconds, and his company has promised that 90 percent of all medical call responses will be within 6 minutes, 30 seconds of a call being made.
There is also a quality assurance component, with paramedics doing a regular follow-up with the hospital, getting feedback from patients and a debriefing done with first responders.
Woronka said Action EMS has about 16 paramedics and EMTs who work at both locations in Hadley, which will ensure they become familiar with the town. Much of this will come from street drills, as he doesn’t want them to rely on GPS to navigate to a medical call.
Spanknebel said the Action EMS employees have quickly become part of the family at the Hadley Fire Department, where a transition has already been occurring in recent years from a predominantly call force to one that includes more full-time workers, including a lieutenant and firefighter who are at the station from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.
When medical calls come in during this time frame, the protocol is for firefighters to also respond with one of the fire trucks.
Full-time fire Lt. Brian Waskiewicz said the Action EMS paramedics and EMTs have become important colleagues in promoting public safety.
“We’re a team,” Waskiewicz said. “The more hands the better off we are together.”
The ambulance is also available for active fires, such as the recent incident when a home was struck by lightning in North Hadley.
“The ambulance was there and did rehab for our firefighters, which was incredible,” Spanknebel said.
The town’s move to having its own ambulance service has been a long time in coming. Town Administrator David Nixon said he has had ongoing talks with Amherst officials and focused on bringing a sustainable service even as there has been an increase in costs and a growing complexity of calls.
Eventually, Nixon said, it became evident that Hadley had to step up its contributions to public safety.
After an ambulance study committee was formed and a request for proposal was issued, Action EMS was the lone entity that responded, with its proposal recommended to the Select Board.
Hadley has signed mutual aid agreements with both the Amherst and Northampton fire departments and the South County EMS in South Deerfield that guarantees these partners are contacted immediately when the Action EMS ambulances are engaged elsewhere.
Spanknebel said the contract with Action EMS can be viewed as enhancing the regional system. “We’ve added an additional resource to the region,” Spanknebel said
Spanknebel has worked since 2005 to put together a transition approach for fire and EMS services, which has included bringing the department up to six full-time personnel, including himself and the deputy chief of operations, supplemented by the 20-member call force.
After the decision was made to have Action EMS, firefighters prepared the space where the ambulance is parked in the garage, put items in storage and moved some vehicles outside, but left room for the mainline pieces, a pumper and a ladder truck. A second pumper is currently out of service and being repaired.
Up a flight of stairs near the bays and adjacent to the IT room are the new sleeping quarters carved out of unused space. Two beds are available for the Action EMS paramedics, along with a television.
They can also use the neighboring rooms, including a kitchen and a place to write reports. Being on site at all times, Spanknebel said, they also help out with chores around the firehouse.
Chris Bargmann, one of two of the company’s employees on duty for a 24-hour shift recently, said that even when resting, she only needs to slip on her boots to be ready to roll when an emergency call comes in.
Woronka said the “out of chute” time, to get from the bedroom to starting the ambulance, is just 30 seconds.
Spanknebel said the Action EMS is becoming a town ambulance, observing that it can be parked at athletic events and be used in community outreach, such as to senior citizens and children’s programs.
The next objective, he said, will be getting a new fire station built in North Hadley, which could be ready in about 18 months. This will provide needed space for fire engine 3 and will be vital to better protecting the community.
Eventually, the plan is to train all firefighters to be EMT basics, rather than the higher-level advanced life support, which is sufficient for Hadley because of its proximity to Cooley Dickinson Hospital.
For now, Hadley is providing the best public safety services it has ever done, Spanknebel said.
”We’re maxing out experience and quality of care,” Spanknebel said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
