By Mike Crowley
The Meadville Tribune
MEADVILLE, Pa. — A six-month check-up for the Meadville Central Fire Department ambulance service resulted in not just a clean bill of health but an evaluation that was worthy of what one Meadville City Council member called a “gold star.”
The report to council showed the ambulance service working efficiently, serving more people than expected and taking in 50 percent more in revenue per call than the projected break-even point.
Council members who had supported the launch of the ambulance service earlier this year were quick to tout the presentation by Emergency Medical Services Coordinator Evan Kardosh as a vindication of a move that had drawn skepticism from some quarters.
“It sounds to me like investing in our services was one of our best decisions,” Mayor Jaime Kinder said after Kardosh concluded. “We just really appreciate you being able to give that level of care to the people who live here — I mean, they deserve that. That’s fantastic.”
Councilwoman Gretchen Myers recalled encountering doubts about the plan that was announced in December, approved in February and put into action 26 weeks ago today.
“I had people who were like, ‘What are they doing? You’re wrecking the city,’” Myers said, “so this is really, really great information.”
From the April 5 launch through Sept. 30, Kardosh told council, the EMS service has responded to 970 ambulance calls, transporting 850 patients with an average response time of 3 minutes, 18 seconds.
No response times within the city have exceeded 8 minutes, Kardosh said, and the fire department has handled all but two of the calls it has received. Two calls were preemptively turned over to another agency to allow a quicker response when Meadville Central units were responding to other emergencies, according to Kardosh.
Call volume has exceeded expectations: Kardosh said the department is responding to 7.2 calls per day; at that rate, crews would handle more than 2,600 calls over a year, which would be a 44 percent increase over the record-setting pace last year, before the ambulance service had been established.
The data, Kardosh said, shows “that there’s definitely a need, that our services are being utilized.” The need extends beyond the city, with the department responding to 50 calls in 13 additional municipalities when handling calls for other agencies, taking crews “as far as East Mead Township and north of Cambridge Springs,” he added.
Regarding revenue, Kardosh said that based on the available 13 weeks of billing, the department has received an average of $419 per call — well over the $279 per call that was estimated as the break-even point when the program was being developed.
So far, the department has received nearly $137,000 in insurance payments. Nearly 56 percent of the revenue has come from Medicare and Medicaid. Commercial insurance accounted for nearly 22 percent and payments from uninsured patients accounted for another 22 percent, according to Kardosh.
“It’s been a fantastic process,” he said.
Councilwoman Autumn Vogel, who attended the meeting via telephone, echoed other members in thanking Kardosh for what was unanimously viewed as good news.
“I think the ambulance service is just like a gold star in terms of — it is an amazing public service that we’ve been able to offer and also,” Vogel told Kardosh, “the way that you and your team have just been so clear and communicative with the public.”
Councilman Jim Roha was the lone council member to vote against the plan. Roha argued in favor of a more conservative approach and called for a “trial run” that would not commit the city to major expenses such as purchasing ambulances and hiring new staff.
Roha on Tuesday said he had not doubted the department’s ability to do the job but had questioned the wisdom of putting the city in the ambulance business.
“When it was first proposed, I had a philosophical problem with competing against private industry,” he said after the meeting. “I was not skeptical of the job they would do, I was just skeptical of whether we should be interfering with private industry.”
After a half-year, Roha said he was “keeping an open mind” regarding the EMS division and his ultimate evaluation would be strongly influenced by additional data concerning revenue.
“I still haven’t seen the final numbers,” he said. “Billing is one thing, but when you get the money is a whole different matter. So I don’t know if we have spent more in salaries and benefits than we have generated in actual cash receipts. I don’t know the answer to that.”
Launching the EMS division requires the addition of four full-time paramedics and the creation of Kardosh’s EMS coordinator position. The paramedic positions came with starting annual salaries of $48,082 as well as benefits that include health insurance and defined contribution retirement plans, according to City Manager Maryann Menanno, and the EMS coordinator position came with an annual salary of $58,150 plus benefits.
The city also spent $58,500 on two used ambulances. Approximately $38,000 of the cost was funded through state grants, according to Finance Manager Tim Groves.
After hearing Kardosh’s report, Kinder was particularly taken with his account of how the department has taken a “whole community approach” in working with some uninsured patients to help them explore ways to secure coverage.
“It is a beautiful thing that not only are we picking people up and saving their lives, but we’re also helping them in the long run,” she said. “You guys are just doing a wonderful job.”
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