Ambulance Response Time Scores Well

The Town of North Hempstead hosted a public meeting at Clinton G. Martin Park in New Hyde Park on July 28, addressing options for ambulance services for the town. And while the discussion concluded that the current system works, it was agreed that there is always room for improvement.

Joseph Stefko, director of public finance at the Center for Governmental Research, in partnership with Hofstra University, researched and conducted a study for ambulance options and presented a baseline review for EMS and ambulance services. He presented this study at the July 28 meeting.

In 2007, the town and Village of Great Neck Plaza were awarded a $180,000 grant through New York State's Shared Municipal Services Incentive program to study the effectiveness in the delivery of ambulance and medical services across the town's fire districts, including Port Washington Fire Department.

"We want to see how to make a functioning system work even better," Stefko said, adding that the town's current ambulance response time was one of the best in the country. "According to this baseline report, true fire emergency calls in the town have gone down, but ambulance calls have gone up."

Stefko added that non-emergency calls need to be separated from the real emergency calls, so people do not call an ambulance to take them to a doctor's appointment or for a routine checkup to the hospital.

Councilman Fred Pollack said too many people are using the system unneccesarily.

"If you don't need an ambulance, don't call one," Pollack said. "We need to improve the system, so it costs the taxpayer less. The town is also still in the process of discussing if residents should pay for ambulance service either through their medical coverage or out-of pocket."

Another way to cut down on unnecessary ambulance calls, Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman explained, is Project Independence, which assists seniors with low-cost taxi rides to medical appointments.

"We have already given over 1,000 rides to seniors at reduced Medicaid rates," Kaiman said. "For example, a $22 carfare would be reduced to $11 and a person would get picked up at their door and be brought to their medical appointment. This would then reduce the amount of people calling ambulances to get rides to the hospital or other medical appointments."

Kaiman added that in September 2009, Senator Charles Schumer awarded $1.6 million to Nassau County for the recruitment of volunteer firefighters.

"Nassau Community College is also offering a year's free tuition worth $1,900 if a person volunteers one year service with their local fire department," Kaiman said.

Stefko said several other things need to be ironed out for a well functioning ambulance system.

"Instead of multiple agencies responding to the same call and showing up at the scene, we need to make sure the closest available source responds, which would be a type of consolidated dispatch system," Stefko said. "Some people call 911 and the fire department and both show up at the scene, which taxes more resources."

Kaiman said the Town of North Hempstead will continue discussions about how to improve the EMS and ambulance system.

"All the volunteer firefighters and EMS make a difference in the community and believe in what they do," Kaiman said.