By Rikki Cason
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
LOCKPORT, N.Y. — With privatized ambulance services scheduled to take effect Monday morning, approximately 40 residents attended a meeting Wednesday to learn exactly what Lockport is getting from Twin City Ambulance.
The company’s heads, Terence Clark, president, and Bryan Brauner, chief executive officer, spoke to the group, giving them a brief history of the company and what service they plan to provide the residents of Lockport.
Clark and Brauner said when Twin City was deciding on how best to staff the city, four and a half years worth of data was run to determine the time of day there are the most calls. It was determined that the highest volume is during the day, but even on the busiest day, on average, there are approximately 15 calls.
This means that Lockport can be covered by one ambulance — staffed at a paramedic level — 24/7. During the day, when calls are at the highest, a second ambulance will report to Lockport to cover basic medical calls, such as a hand laceration.
When a call goes to dispatch, they will alert Twin City if this call requires a paramedic or if it requires a basic service. During off hours, when only one ambulance is in the city, if a call comes in, a second ambulance will head into the city as back up. This ambulance will report from no farther away than Transit Road at Tonawanda Creek in East Amherst — approximately a 10 minute drive.
Clark said Twin City is currently scouting a location for their hub in Lockport. He said they are looking at four locations, one being two blocks away from city hall and another six blocks away. These locations will allow for a quick response time to calls around the city.
Clark said they will provide “equal or better” response times than what the city is providing now.
Until a location is found, Twin City will be working out of city hall starting Monday.
Twin City Ambulance has a fleet of 36. As of 2013, Twin City Ambulance has responded to more than 35,000 calls and completed 25,000 transfers. Clark said they have the capacity to respond to a disaster in a matter of minutes, getting additional ambulances to an area while not lacking coverage in their other areas. He used the example of the 2009 Flight 3407 crash in Clarence. In 20 minutes, Twin City was able to call workers in and staff an additional eight ambulances on scene. Clarence normally is staffed with one ambulance.
They also responded during the 2006 October storm and helped in 2013 when Rural Metro went on strike. Twin City is also able to assist other areas with service, when needed, without disrupting their service in other areas.
Out of their 190 employees, almost all are certified to provide care, including managers, supervisors and office employees. Brauner said this allows anyone on staff to jump in, in case of an emergency and provide care.
Billing was a question that many Lockport residents have expressed concern with. Clark said that is an “extremely complicated issue” to answer because the amount is based on each person’s insurance coverage.
He said they do take all insurances and Medicaid and offer payment plans, hardship write-offs and discounts in extreme cases. Clark said the main thing is they want people to call them and discuss any issues they may have with payment.
“We do work with people who may fall into hardships,” he said. “We try to avoid collections.”
Clark said their rates are comparable to other ambulance companies in the area and state.
Twin City bills for patient transfers and services rendered when advance level care is provided and the patient refuses transport — such as responding to a call for a diabetic who isn’t responding at first because of low blood sugar, but then does.
Twin City does not bill for routine assistance calls — such as a person who slipped out of bed. They also do not bill for assessment and refusal calls and responses without treatment and/or transport.
The city will not be paying anything for the service. The only exception for that would be if Twin City responds to a workers compensation call from the city worker, because the city insurance would pay the bill.
Brauner said if for some reason Twin City fails to provide adequate service to the City of Lockport, there is not a monetary penalty. Instead, that money that would go to the city, will go back into the company to pay for more resources for the area.
At the end of this week or early next week Twin City will be sitting down to meet with the Lockport Fire Department union, to determine how they will answer calls. The fire department will still respond on certain calls and on occasion one of the three firefighters reporting to the scene may be asked to help provide CPR during transfer.
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©2014 the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal (Lockport, N.Y.)