“Personnel from the Duanesburg Volunteer Ambulance Corps will have three minutes to muster a crew for an emergency call before state police dispatchers signal for mutual aid from other area rescue companies, town officials said Thursday.
The brief window will make it nearly impossible for the nonprofit ambulance service to respond to emergencies, effectively continuing a Town Board policy diverting all calls to the Rotterdam Emergency Medical Service or Mohawk Ambulance in Schenectady. Last week, board members directed the state police to cease dispatching the company and gave its Board of Directors a week to produce a roster of volunteer availability.
By dispatching calls outside of Duanesburg, however, the town inadvertently caused Rotterdam’s ambulance service to violate state Department of Health regulations. These guidelines require that the town’s certified ambulance service be given at least three minutes to respond to an emergency before a mutual aid company is dispatched, Supervisor Rene Merrihew.
“It’s bureaucratic red tape, but it’s the best thing this town can do to stay in compliance with the law,” she told a standing-room-only crowd at Town Hall Thursday evening.
Town officials expressed dismay at the failure of the ambulance service’s leadership to produce the roster the town requested. Board member Martin White advised the company to devote their time away from being dispatched to emergencies to creating a plan that will rejuvenate the ambulance service.
“We want you to succeed,” he told the company’s board. “What we’re looking at right now is a reprieve so you guys can reorganize.”
The ambulance corps came under fire this month after a dramatic increase in missed calls between December and January, as well as an overall increase in response times. Whenever the ambulance service is unable to respond to a call, it can take more than 20 minutes for another mutual aid company to arrive.
Some company officials blamed the missed calls and slower response times on a lack of volunteers. Many former volunteers and even officers from other emergency organizations stated recently that this shortage was made worse by Bruce Smith, the ambulance service’s former captain.
“Everybody knows what the problem is,” shouted Jim Wengenack, the husband of Susan Wengenack, who served as captain between 2006 and 2007. “It’s Bruce Smith and his crony board.”
Board Chairwoman Sharon Smith said her husband is no longer the captain and has decided against serving the position in a temporary capacity. She said the company will be led by Marc DeBraccio, a senior crew chief, until the ambulance service can conduct elections later this month.
“The crews that are there are working together with a united front,” she said following the meeting.
Schenectady County Emergency Management Director Bill VanHoesen offered his assistance to the ambulance service. But he said the insistence that the problems were solely related to a lack of volunteers is not addressing the company’s issues in their entirety.
“There are seven other organizations here in town and no one else is saying they’re in a crisis situation,” he said.
The ambulance service is also going on its second month without a contract from the town, meaning it now lacks nearly a third of its operating budget. By having calls diverted to other ambulance services, the company is also stripped of its primary source of revenue.”
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Mason, Jason. Schenectady Daily Gazette 22 February 2008.