Ossining Ambulance District

September 2008

Current Situation

The Greater Ossining Community has enjoyed 24 hour emergency medical care and transport for 50 years through the efforts of the Ossining Volunteer Ambulance Corps

This service has been paid for through a combination of insurance reimbursements, billing, donations and the contribution of thousands of hours of time from volunteers. More recently, volunteers have been supplemented with paid per diem employees to ensure 24 hour coverage particularly during weekdays.

Need: What has changed?

The number of calls is increasing annually, due in part to an increase in population and an aging of the population

The number of volunteers available to schedule is declining due to personal demands as well as the amount of mandated training for qualified paramedics and Emergency Medical Technicians- EMTs

The use of per diem employees and volunteers means that in a regional emergency, when such personnel are required to report for duty to their “home” community, Ossining lacks “dedicated” personnel to stay in Ossining during the emergency.

Need: What has changed?

Revenue recovery from the current sources as well as fund raising has not kept up with the costs of maintaining dedicated emergency medical services for our community

Ossining’s current emergency medical services provider, OVAC, alerted the community of the need for a new model over four years ago

With the current model, in place today, Ossining will not be able to maintain adequate emergency medical services (EMS) for the Village of Ossining and the Unincorporated Area of the Town through 2009

Proposal

Because of its commitment to providing the Ossining community with 24 hour emergency medical care, OVAC has asked the Town Board to identify the most effective method to maintain the high level of care that residents have come to rely on. The volunteer corps has indicated that by working with the current model, it will not be able to continue its operations within a year.

A working committee has determined that to assure continuous “dedicated” EMS response for Ossining- an Ambulance District should be created that would provide adequate funding to supplement the volunteer corps activities.

What is an Ambulance District?

An ambulance district is a special taxing district- like a sewer district or water district- to raise revenue to fund emergency medical services.

The proposed Ambulance District would raise the funds needed to cover the personnel costs of seven dedicated personnel – four paramedics and three EMTs that have been identified as critical components of Ossining’s emergency medical services response.

Where is the District located?

The Ambulance District will serve all of the Unincorporated Area of the Town of Ossining and all of the Village of Ossining.

In addition, the Town of New Castle is considering establishing an Ambulance District for the West End Neighborhood (the area included in the Ossining School District) to ensure the provision of emergency medical services to these residents. The New Castle residents in the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corps area are already part of a different Ambulance District; as are all Yorktown residents.

Who pays for the District?

All of the Village of Ossining residents All of the Unincorporated Area residents Possibly, residents of the Town of New

Castle West End Neighborhood- in an Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA) with the Town of Ossining and through a signed contract with the EMS provider

How will the Ambulance District work? The Town of Ossining will contract with a

qualified provider for needed emergency medical services

The emergency medical services provider will work in partnership with the existing volunteer organization already in place: the Ossining Volunteer Ambulance Corps (OVAC)

When would this new arrangement begin? The Ambulance District contract for

services would begin in calendar year 2009 with the first charges showing on the April 2009 tax bills.

What would it cost?

The estimates are that the cost of the district for the 2009 budget year would be approximately $50 per average household for property owners in the District. Some properties will pay more, depending on the value of the home or property; others will pay less.

How will costs be controlled? As part of the establishment of the district, an

Oversight Committee will be appointed consisting of representatives from each of the municipalities in the district as well as community representatives.

This Committee will meet quarterly to go over the operations of the district. It will review the service contract as well as how well the community’s needs are being met by the service provider and make recommendations to the Town Board about the contract for services and the budget for the district for the coming year.

Next Steps

The Town will hold a Public Hearings on the proposed Ambulance District

The Village of Ossining will consider inclusion in the Ambulance District and then vote on a resolution for inclusion

Based on feedback from the community, consideration of the health and welfare of the community and the future needs of the community, the Town Board will cast its vote on the creation of the district.

OSSINING’S EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

Name Ossining Ambulance District OVAC Briarcliff/Croton Flycar

Level of Service Advanced Life Support (ALS)Basic Life Support (BLS)

Advanced Life Support (ALS)Basic Life Support (BLS) EMT – I

Advanced Life Support (ALS)

Service Area Town of Ossining Unincorporated Area, Village of Ossining, WestEnd New Castle (Ossining School District)

Ossining School DistrictPrimarily Ossining Fire District

Villages of Briarcliff, Croton and Ossining

Personnel 4 Paramedics, 3 EMT’s via contract with OVAC Paid & Volunteer paramedics, EMT’s, support personnel

Paramedic OVAC (3)

Vehicles 3 Ambulances2 Flycars

1 Flycar, 1 back up FlycarPaid by Phelps

Housing OVAC HQ Private HQ with 5 bay garage, offices, storage, training & living quarters

OVAC

Equipment 3 sets – State certified 2 sets – State certified

Funding ALS District Taxes Patient Insurance Billing

Fund DrivesPatient Insurance Billing

Contract w/OVAC

Hours of Service 1 Paramedic Ambulance 24 hrs, 7 days a week– 6am to 6am1 EMT/BLS Ambulance – 8am to 4 am 6 days a week1 Paramedic Supervisor – 8am to 4 pm 5 days a weekSupplemented by radio-toned volunteer Paramedics & EMT's

24 hours a day by in-house rosterof volunteers & paid personnelSupplemented by radio-toned volunteers

24 hours a day by in-house roster, paid personnel, dispatched bytwo-way radio communication

Note: OVAC provides all transport, occasionally supplemented by STAT Flight helicopter August 18, 2008

OVAC Response Times

OVAC Response Times

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

<1Minute

1-2Minutes

2-3Minutes

3-4Minutes

4-5Minutes

5-6Minutes

6-7Minutes

7-8Minutes

8-9Minutes

9-10Minutes

>10Minutes

OVAC RESPONSE TIMES

<1 Minute 48 2.54%

1-2 Minutes 10 0.53%

2-3 Minutes 83 4.39%

3-4 Minutes 181 9.58%

4-5 Minutes 253 13.39%

5-6 Minutes 296 15.67%

6-7 Minutes 236 12.49%

7-8 Minutes 236 12.49%

8-9 Minutes 254 13.45%

9-10 Minutes 174 9.21%

>10 Minutes 120 6.35%

total volume 1889

Second Qtr 2008ALS

BLS

Cancel

Stand By

Lift Assist

No Patient

DOA

RMA

Pre-Arranged Transport

ALS-BLS

Mutual Aid

Apr-08 May-08 Jun-08

ALS 75 60 72 40.60%

BLS 66 62 56 36.10%

Cancel 5 7 11 4.50%

Stand By 1 0 2 0.60%

Lift Assist 5 5 6 3.10%

No Patient 0 0 4 0.80%

DOA 0 2 0 0.40%

RMA 17 16 36 13.50%

Pre-Arranged Transport 1 0 0 0.20%

ALS-BLS 21 20 23 12.50%

Mutual Aid 6 10 9 4.90%

Totals 170 153 187 510

2008 2nd Quarter Call Statistics