Pa. Ambulance Services to Join Forces

Sept. 08--DANVILLE -- Help is on the way for the Danville Ambulance Service.

Once the deal receives the necessary regulatory approval from the state Office of Attorney General, the local service will merge with Geisinger affiliate Holy Spirit EMS. When that happens, the more than 60-year-old emergency medical service with one station will become part of the much larger Holy Spirit system.

Geisinger officials are holding off on commenting on the merger until it is officially approved, spokesman Mike Ferlazzo said. But he provided some background on Holy Spirit EMS.

While the Danville Ambulance Service employs 12 full-time emergency medical technicians, nine full-time paramedics and part-time EMTs and 11 volunteers, including a registered nurse and a physician who serves as medical director, West Shore Advanced Life Support Services Inc., which does business as Holy Spirit EMS -- a Geisinger affiliate based in Camp Hill -- employs 150. Of those, 56 are EMTs and 62 are paramedics. The service operates out of 11 stations that serve Adams, Cumberland, Franklin, Perry and northern York counties, utilizing 35 vehicles.

Holy Spirit EMS provides emergency medical services, non-emergency medical services, advanced life support, basic life support, routine medical transportation and EMS billing services.

Kevin Brennan, Geisinger's executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer, confirmed the merger when asked about it at the Aug. 26 Geisinger Authority meeting.

Earlier at the meeting, authority member Sue Kauwell, who is Montour County prothonotary, told Brennan she had heard that Geisinger and Holy Spirit were purchasing the local ambulance service.

Kauwell said the ambulance service has had difficulty staffing shifts.

"It's not just our region, but a big-picture problem," she added.

The Danville Ambulance Service, formed 62 years ago, had been talking with West Shore Advanced Life Support Services Inc., according to a Geisinger release issued Aug. 26. Geisinger is affiliated with Holy Spirit Hospital in Camp Hill.

The two organizations and their boards determined that a merger would be mutually beneficial -- for the organizations and their communities. An agreement to merge was signed on July 14, but the agreement had to be filed with the state Office of Attorney General for regulatory approval.

A Danville Ambulance Service official could not be reached for comment for this story.

Copyright 2015 - The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.