By Kathleen E. Carey
Daily Times
ARDMORE, Pa. — Narberth Ambulance has reached an agreement with Glenolden, Norwood, Prospect Park, Ridley Park and Tinicum Township to provide a paramedic intercept vehicle with Advanced Life Support.
“The willingness to work across municipal boundaries, identify a shared need and develop a cooperative solution demonstrates what can be accomplished when communities and emergency service organizations come together with a common goal: providing residents with the best possible emergency care,” Narberth Ambulance Deputy Chief Pat Glynn said.
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The service started on Sept. 11 . In its first 10 days, it received 100 calls from the new five communities.
Ambulance officials described the paramedic intercept car as an “emergency room on wheels,” with the medical equipment and skilled advanced life support personnel needed to initiate hospital-level actions at a scene.
Each of the five communities is paying $110,000 annually for the service. Glenolden Borough Manager Brian Razzi said the town will be eligible for some reimbursements from insurance companies.
“If and when the insurance company can be billed for it, the boroughs will receive some of the money back,” he said.
Crozer Health previously provide emergency transport services free of charge to more than 50% of Delaware County. When the health system closed in 2025, those communities were left to figure it out on their own.
Initially, funding commitments from the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, AmeriHealth Caritas Foundation and Jefferson Health allowed four ALS vehicles to bridge the gap.
Delaware County accepted a $1 million state grant to help during the transition.
This year, Ridley Township had been looking for a way to have these municipalities reimburse the township as it had paid $650,000 to have Narberth Ambulance respond to calls. Township officials were concerned that residents from these towns were using ALS services Ridley residents paid for without contributing to the cost.
Now these municipalities have their own contract with Narberth Ambulance.
“This was a team effort between our five municipalities,” Ridley Park Councilman Rich Guerra said. “We did our research and selected Narberth Ambulance as our emergency service provider because they already had a successful track record within Delaware County. Many of their EMT’s live in Delaware County, so this is a win-win for all of us.”
The Narberth Ambulance paramedic intercept vehicle will work with ambulances operated by the Tinicum and Norwood fire companies and their crews.
Razzi said he anticipates this will make a difference.
“If you increase providers, it should decrease service time,” he said.
Glenolden’s borough manager said he wasn’t aware of any incident in which a life was lost as a result of Crozer ceasing to provide this service.
However, he said borough officials did get feedback on timing issues.
“First responders were saying it’s taking a little bit longer than it should. We’ve got to enhance the service,” Razzi said.
Ashley Deihl, vice president of Prospect Park’s borough council and chair of its public safety committee, spoke about what this means for her community.
“It means a commitment to making sure that they are receiving prompt medical care during emergency situations,” she said. “It’s been fearful for families to see the long wait times. We saw longer wait times and we saw the stretch it was causing on our neighboring communities as well.”
Deihl praised the towns for their work in creating a solution.
“We all came together in a very cohesive fashion to try to do what was best for our communities,” she said. “We hope we can be a guide for other communities. We were able to get it done.”
Plus, Deihl added, “Narberth was incredible to work with.”
Norwood’s mayor also had positive comments.
“This true group effort is a tremendous investment in our community’s health care by strengthening medical services, ensuring faster response times and giving our residents the best chance of survival in a sudden emergency,” Robert Narcavage said.
Narberth Ambulance has been providing the same service to Lansdowne since 2022 and to Ridley Township as of 2025.
Attempts to reach officials from Tinicum were not successful.
Other municipalities are working to build similar regional partnerships.
In September Nether Providence and Upper Providence townships along with Swarthmore, Rutledge and Rose Valley moved to create the Municipal Emergency Medical Services Authority of Delaware County. It is expected to launch in early 2027.
Have you been part of a similar regional partnership to shore up ALS coverage? What made it work — or what obstacles did you run into getting multiple municipalities to agree on cost-sharing?
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