Grantley, Pa. Takes on ALS After End of Wellspan Program

Jan. 13--If you have any emergency in Spring Garden Township, you're not likely to notice anything different.

You'll still get picked up by an ambulance.

Whatever your illness or injury, you'll still receive the same level of care you received prior to Jan. 1 -- the day WellSpan's York Hospital discontinued leasing staff paramedics to regional EMS companies.

But it could have been a different story.

Spring Garden Township is only required to provide basic life support coverage, which includes emergency medical technicians but not paramedics.

Paramedics provide advanced life support services, which includes the ability to administer medications and heart monitoring. They ride on a mobile intensive care unit, or MICU, equipped with more life-saving technology.

At the end of August, Grantley -- and others around the county who rented paramedics from WellSpan -- received a letter from the healthcare provider notifying them of the changes.

"It left the local community scrambling to figure out how to cover the void," said John Dommel, president of Grantley Fire and EMS.

The way Dommel sees it, the company had three choices.

Grantley, in order to continue its advanced life support services, could have rented paramedics from another provider.

The second option -- to forego advanced life support altogether and allow their coverage area to lean on existing resources -- wasn't really on the table, Dommel said.

The service, he added, is one township residents have become accustomed to since Grantley began staffing with WellSpan paramedics in July 2010.

At the time of its announcement, WellSpan noted that it wanted to encourage regionalization of EMS -- a measure that might involve consolidation of smaller EMS companies scattered throughout the community.

One EMS group, Yoe Fire Company Ambulance Service, recently moved that direction by changing its name to York Regional Emergency Medical Services Inc. to more accurately reflect its services.

"With WellSpan's timing, they didn't give anyone time to explore regionalization options," said Paul Grubbs, volunteer district fire chief. "That's not something you do in three or four months."

Ultimately, Grantley went with a short-term plan and a long term goal of exploring regionalization.

They purchased their own equipment, hired in-house paramedics and a medical director and obtained their own licensure and certification, including a DEA number required to purchase medications for use on the ambulance.

"Just to put a new MICU in service costs $250,000," Dommel said. "That's just to buy the truck and get it up and running."

That cost doesn't include the hiring of personnel, said Joe Myers, EMS operations manager.

To become its own ALS unit, Grantley hired two full-time paramedics and seven part timers at an estimated cost of $200,000 a year, between salaries and benefits.

They didn't look far to find the staff.

"It worked out nicely for us," he said. "Just about all the folks we hired are former WellSpan employees."

Advanced life support services also require their own medical director, who can be contacted to give oversight in various types of emergency situations.

That was another $17,000, Grubbs said.

Barry Sparks, spokesman for WellSpan, said the hospital also sold Grantley two cardiac monitors at fair market value.

"We actually got a fairly good deal on some of the equipment they suddenly found excess to their needs," Dommel said. "It wasn't nearly as expensive as we thought it was going to be."

Grantley Fire and EMS, Dommel said, receives no tax dollars. Operations are paid for solely through private donations, grants, patient billing and ambulance memberships.

"We had a good gauge on the income we were getting off calls," Grubbs said. "We're not going to make anything off this. We feel it's close enough that should at least break even. In our mind, as long as we don't bankrupt the company, we have an obligation to provide this to the residents of Spring Garden Township."

Copyright 2014 - York Daily Record, Pa.