By Riley Yates
Morning Call
LEHIGH COUNTY, Pa. — A southern Lehigh County ambulance company is considering expanding, despite financial questions and opposition from its neighbors and regional emergency officials.
For more than three decades, Upper Saucon Ambulance Corps has offered basic life support service. Now, it plans to staff an advanced life support ambulance, either by contracting with an existing ALS company, or by hiring paramedics.
“Our township is growing so fast that we’re looking into the future now,” ambulance Chief Jim Attrill said on Wednesday. “This is the step to go.”
The idea comes after a plan to consolidate struggling basic life support squads in Upper Saucon, Coopersburg and Lower Milford collapsed this year over turf battles. But the new proposal also is meeting stiff criticism from other regional squads, who say it is unrealistic and would hurt them.
“If they go to ALS, we can probably shut our doors,” said Jay Keck, the chief of South Mountain Area Medic 5 of Center Valley, an all-volunteer squad that now covers advanced life support for the three communities.
Ambulance squads need a steady volume of calls to survive financially. By responding to ALS calls, Upper Saucon could pull in roughly $60,000 in revenue that now goes to South Mountain. But Upper Saucon also would have to hire or contract for paramedics to cover round-the-clock shifts.
Attrill said it would cost about $200,000 a year to offer advanced life support, which involves more urgent medical care. He is talking with Cetronia Ambulance of South Whitehall Township about contracting with its paramedics as an initial step. He is also calculating whether Upper Saucon can afford to go out on its own.
The proposal would require the financial support of the Upper Saucon supervisors the first two or three years, Attrill said. In September, he plans to brief the board and offer them some options.
Upper Saucon, Coopersburg and Lower Milford all operate within a few miles of one another. The Eastern PA Emergency Medical Service Council has pushed for the three to consolidate, a move the council says would eliminate overlap and improve service.
If Upper Saucon goes out on its own for ALS, Eastern PA operations chief John Kloss said, it would hurt all three squads and South Mountain Medic.
“Frankly, it’s a mistake because you already have an ALS service in the community,” Kloss said. “It’s going to cripple all of them, that’s what’s going to happen. They’re all going to fail.”
Upper Saucon Township has seen explosive growth in the past decade. From 2000 to 2006, its population jumped 20 percent to nearly 14,400, according to Census Bureau estimates.
Upper Saucon Township Manager Tom Beil gave tentative praise to the squad’s proposal, but said township officials need specifics on how it might work.
“It’s worth exploring and we’d like to know all the facts,” Beil said.
Rob Newhard, chief of Coopersburg Emergency Medical Services, said his company was leery of the consolidation because of budget concerns if ALS was offered. And that was with three operations teaming together, he said.
“Even if we all merged and became one unit, we still thought it would be so much of a financial burden, it would not be able to sustain itself and it would go under,” Newhard said.
Upper Saucon Ambulance has had challenges with its finances in past years.
The squad ran deficits from 2001 to 2005 that averaged nearly $49,000 a year, according to tax filings. It had a $34,000 surplus in 2006 and $459,000 in the bank that year, the last for which records are available. Attrill said it continues to operate in the black.
Keck said at least half of South Mountain Medic’s 1,000 yearly calls come from Upper Saucon. The loss of revenue would be devastating, he said.
Is there a need for two ALS services in the area?
“If there would be, then we wouldn’t be having a problem staying alive,” Keck said.