Rescue squad closes to regroup. Service will be provided by others.
By Patrick Lester
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
The troubled Perkasie Community Ambulance squad has closed down amid mounting financial and management problems and a planned federal government seizure of its headquarters.
The nonprofit organization, which serves more than 10,000 residents in Perkasie and parts of nearby towns, shut down Wednesday night and has lost its state-issued license to provide services, according to Betty Graver, a member of the newly formed board of directors overseeing the group.
The ambulance company, which had been operating without workers’ compensation insurance coverage since July 2006, is hoping to reopen in a month. In the meantime, other neighboring ambulance groups will pick up Perkasie’s emergency calls.
Emergency services officials don’t expect services to suffer in Perkasie’s response area, which includes Perkasie, as well as parts of East Rockhill, Hilltown and West Rockhill townships and Silverdale Borough.
Although Grand View Hospital’s ambulance service is expected to take a bulk of Perkasie’s calls, paramedics from St. Luke’s Emergency and Transport Services in Quakertown as well as Dublin and Souderton also will be responding to that territory.
Perkasie Community Ambulance responded to 805 emergency calls in 2005 ? the most recent records available.
''Bucks County is a strong enough county that will be able to absorb that area without any impact,’' said Joseph Schmider, director of the state Department of Health’s Emergency Medical Services office.
''I think you’ll probably notice very little impact,’' said Kermit Gorr, executive director of St. Luke’s Emergency and Transport. ''From what I understand, it’s only going to be a short time.’'
Jeryl L. DeGideo, director of Bucks County Emergency Health Service s, did not return phone messages seeking comment.
Schmider said the ambulance company broke state law by not giving 90 days notice before a shutdown. The board of directors will have to apply for a new application to put an ambulance back in service.
Schmider said the group wouldn’t receive a new license until it undergoes a thorough review and inspections by Bucks County emergency services officials.
''Our intention is to reopen the squad and do it the quickest we can and make sure it’s correct,’' said Graver, also the executive director of the Pennridge Chamber of Commerce.
Asked what would change in the next 30 days to improve the group’s outlook, Graver said, ''We’re going to have a handle on employees, pay and we can’t have overtime. There will be money that will flow in from previous bills [issued to patients].’'
Graver said a number of problems contributed to the shutdown in addition to the lack of workers’ compensation insurance.
In addition:
An ambulance is going to be repossessed because the group hasn’t made payments on it.
A fuel account has been closed.
Detailed reports of emergency calls submitted to Bucks County were three weeks behind schedule.
The Internal Revenue Service posted a notice on the Perkasie squad’s building at Ninth Street and Park Avenue, saying it is in the process of seizing the building. The IRS is seeking more than $90,000 in fines and penalties from the nonprofit.
The nonprofit organization hadn’t filed tax returns for several years because its members didn’t know they had to submit those returns. The group filed returns for 2002, 2003 and 2004 this year.
The group spends about $250,000 to $275,000 annually and has reported no monetary or property assets on its tax returns.
Tom Skiffington, a Perkasie real estate agent and a member of the ambulance squad’s new board of directors, confirmed Friday that he’s buying the organization’s Park Avenue property, although the sale has not yet been finalized. He said his hope is that part of the building could be rented out to the organization to minimize the group’s costs.
Ambulance officials have said the building was recently appraised at $325,000.
The organization had requested a $107,000 loan from the borough that was denied earlier this year. Perkasie council President Eadie Burke said the organization had no collateral and appeared to be financially disorganized.
The squad had a paramedic on duty about 20 hours a day in 2006, but toward the end of the year, its in-service time slipped to about 181/2 hours per day, according to Bucks County records. A majority of Bucks County Advanced Life Support units are in service around the clock.
Graver said the closure was unrelated to an ongoing study being conducted by the state to determine how to provide more efficient and better managed ambulance services in Upper Bucks County.
Officials said the state Department of Community and Economic Development study’s details could be released by the end of the month.
Some of the possibilities raised have included ambulance squad mergers, oversight by a management group and municipal tax hikes as remedies.