In an effort to address the crisis in emergency medical services (EMS) in the Stamford area, a group of Stamford Fire Department members, EMS providers and residents have formed the Northern Catskills EMS Council (NCEMSC).
The NCEMSC has the support of the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation, a Stamford-based nonprofit philanthropic organization whose president and director, Don VanEtten, also serves on the NCEMSC’s Steering Committee.
“Once the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation Board of Directors had been made aware of the current state of our EMS, the board made it a priority of mine to assist with helping to fix this problem,” Mr. VanEtten said.
“The NCEMSC’s support of the Foundation's initiative with facts, information, and statistics is crucial to this endeavor, providing the community with extremely vital information.”
New York is not one of the 11 states that have designated EMS an “essential service.”
That means fire departments, municipalities and local governments are not legally required to provide EMS to their citizens.
Many rural EMS agencies, typically fire departments, have taken on this responsibility and rely on volunteer emergency medical technicians (EMTs), with commercial, for-profit ambulance services serving as backup to the volunteer EMTs.
Dealing with a large geographical area, a shrinking volunteer force, and a difficulty in finding replacements who have the time to undergo the extensive training required to become qualified EMS personnel, many rural EMS agencies have been forced to reduce their services and, in some cases, close entirely.
The Stamford Fire Department EMS no longer operates ambulances as it once did but transitioned to a first response agency.
It responds to medical emergencies with EMTs and a fully equipped fly car that does not transport patients.
With more people moving to the area, emergency call volume increasing, and the decreasing availability of the commercial countywide ambulance service American Medical Response (AMR), relying on neighboring jurisdictions to provide ambulance services to transport patients to hospitals is becoming unsustainable said the steering committee.
Ryan Hejnal, EMS chief of the Stamford Fire Department, said the NCEMSC’s focus is to educate the community on the current EMS situation and the impacts on public health:
“We want to continue to serve the community but need a fully-functioning and viable 24/7 EMS ambulance service. Education is a crucial first step,” he said.
While the challenges are daunting, the NCEMSC is heartened by developments in other counties like Schoharie and Otsego; and upstate towns like Windham, home to a municipal transport service for 25-plus years. With the Robinson Broadhurst Foundation’s crucial initial funding and support, NCEMSC is hopeful that Stamford, Harpersfield and Kortright will once again have a reliable ambulance service, leading to improved health outcomes in this area of the Northern Catskills.