By M. Elizabeth Roman
Copyright 2007 Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
FITCHBURG, Mass. — A city-run ambulance service will return a week from tomorrow after more than 20 years on hiatus, according to a contract completed with MedStar Ambulance Co.
The agreement, signed Thursday, contained no surprises, according to what Fire Chief Kevin Roy told City Councilors last week in order to get approval of $350,000 to keep five firefighters from losing their jobs.
MedStar guarantees a return on the money in the contract. It will pay $400,000 to the city in installments between now and June 30, regardless of how much money the service collects from billing.
“We are very happy with the contract,” Mayor Dan H. Mylott said. “We think it is going to be very beneficial for the city. We look forward to analyzing the data and information from this.”
The bulk of the money will pay for five firefighters to run a Basic Life Support ambulance.
Two Advanced Life Support vehicles will be housed in Fitchburg fire stations but staffed by MedStar employees, and the company will pay the city $24,000, out of the $400,000, according to the contract.
MedStar agreed to pay the city $6 per call, up to $26,000, for all city-dispatched calls completed. The company will not reveal how much it actually bills for each call, but it agreed to share that information confidentially with the city for its long-range planning, according to the contract.
A joint oversight committee will evaluate the service and make recommendations next year.
When the city last had an ambulance service, David Gilmartin, director of the Office of Emergency Preparedness for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, was mayor from 1978 to 1984.
“I think it’s a smart idea,” he said yesterday of the city-run ambulance proposal. “This is the best way to achieve this right now.”
Before 1950, police took patients to the hospital in paneled vehicles called wagons. In 1954, the city bought its first ambulance and continued the city-run service until 1983. Recently, the Fire Department was dispatching Patriot Ambulance to all emergency medical calls.
Mr. Gilmartin said many communities operate a lucrative ambulance service. However, he remembers that the ambulances fell into disrepair and eventually had to be decommissioned, because a separate fund had not been set up to save revenue from medical billing.
“It became an impossible situation,” he said. “You have to maintain the ambulance.”
He said he hopes the initiative works out when the city-run service returns Aug. 6, adding, “It’s been a long time coming.”