Officials: Ambulance mergers the ‘wave of the future’

When the companies merged, consolidating resources and retaining volunteers were the first things to take place

April 18, 2017 10:43 AM

By Carolyn Bostick
Observer-Dispatch

CLINTON, N.Y. — A Central New York volunteer ambulance company has gotten a new pulse thanks to a merger among local ambulance corps.

Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps began the merger in January with the Waterville Area Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the Oriskany Falls Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

“The merger is going well, we’re learning a lot and gearing up and getting the lay of the land,” COCVAC Chief of EMS Steven Dziura said.

After the merger, COCVAC now uses three stations located in Waterville, Whitesboro and Clinton and has 12 full-time paramedics and about 149 volunteers.

“There’s so much changing every day. It’s great to just grow and evolve and see everything changing,” Dziura said.

When the companies merged, consolidating resources and retaining volunteers were the first things to take place, but there are still more steps to complete the process. The two former ambulance corps will need to transfer ownership and dissolve their companies in the months to come to finish the merger.

With the costs of running ambulance services increasing all the time, and reimbursement rates that “haven’t changed in 20 years,” Dziura sees mergers becoming a major trend.

“This type of thing will be the wave of the future,” he said.

The area that COCVAC now covers stretches from Westmoreland to North Brookfield. “It’s a huge swath of land,” Dziura said.

Altogether, it’s taken about 18 months of planning to make everything happen smoothly.

The volunteer numbers are up from last year’s total of 80, and Dziura said they’re always looking for more people looking to make a difference.

“Right now, our biggest obstacle is getting volunteers, and we want to keep that pool growing,” Dziura said.

Adding volunteers from Oriskany Falls and Waterville was a great help to maintaining relationships with the communities there. EMS Captain Jason Tiffin said the comfort of seeing a familiar face on a medical call has helped keep the connection personal.

“I would have to say that the merger is going very well,” Tiffin said of the newly added Waterville and Oriskany Falls areas. “There are a lot of happy citizens in that area.”

The anticipated call volume is expected to jump up a bit thanks to the new coverage areas, but now COCVAC will have more resources to allocate to handle the approximate 4,500 calls expected in 2017 compared to the nearly 4,000 calls they had in 2016.

Dan Broedel, director of the Midstate Medical Services Council, which oversees ambulance operations in Oneida, Herkimer and Madison counties, said there have been a few local ambulance mergers in the past decade and with each one, the process gets a little smoother.

“In the past 10 years, it’s probably been about four to five mergers and after a bumpy start, it works out,” Broedel said. “Consolidation is the future. It’s getting harder and harder to run these volunteer operations; we’re seeing it across the state.”

The local perspective from the COCVAC merger will help shape other mergers yet to come, and Broedel thinks it’s smart of companies like COCVAC to be ahead of the trend.

“We are excited to see how it works. I think they’re on the front end of something great. I think it’s going to be a better utilization of our resources, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that caught on in the area,” Broedel said.