City of Poughkeepsie Ambulance Contract

[truck45 1]

Town of Wappingers Contract is totally seperate they work for the town technically not for TransCare. Thier units are Town Of Wappingers Ambulance Not TransCare. The EMT's and Medic's get paid from TransCare but work for the town. This was an issue a few years back when a guy worked for Mobile Life and called them personally for an EMS Call and them came and DC 911 knew nothing and it was in the Town Of Wappingers Area. Town Of Wappingers Ambulance will not go cover City of Pooughkeepsie or Fairview.

Thomas

1. Crews that staff the Town of Wappinger Ambulances do not 'technically' work for the town. They work for Transcare.

2. The Town Ambulances are Transcares. Not owned or maintained by the Town of Wappinger. They are just dedicated units for the town with the towns name on it.

3. In the past , a Wappinger Ambulance has gone into the City of Poughkeepsie under mutual aid.

[gamewell45 258]

I think that we are missing something here. EMS contracts in this county change constantly, and people bounce from company to company, oftentimes working 3-4 agencies at any given time. While we have plenty of great providers, how do we make the business end of EMS work for the public we serve?

I would assert that 911 EMS needs to be a municipal service. Provided by the Fire Department, or a 3rd municipal service. Pay employees what they are worth for the work they do, allow some movement and a future for them (something few private sector companies in any industry can provide these days. Depending on what type of governmental entity they work for, billing can still be done to recover costs incurred for providing services.

It seems to be only the employees who lose here when contracts get bounced around and people have to bounce between agencies. Until the government powers give credibility to EMS agencies, or EMS in general, the days of contracts, politics, etc. will continue. Don't forget, the municipalities go for these agencies because they charge less than the actual cost of maintaining an ambulance and crew, hoping to make up the rest on billing revenue. I would challenge any City Manager/ Administrator to compare the costs of a private system and municipal system and see what the bottom line is. I don't think it would be too far off, and it would enable the municipality to have better control over the system, to ensure superior public safety.

I concur with you; it would be nice if EMS could be a municipal service, whether by the FD or 3rd Municipal service. Unfortunatley it all comes down to tax monies, which given the particular state of the economy, are in short supply right now. For any politiican to support this would be certain suicide for his/her political career and we all know how much they value their careers. Nothwithstanding, the public tends not to have too much sympathy for what pay and benefits employees receive since most of them are in the same boat and when they call 911, an ambulance shows up.

The biggest uphill battle is convincing the public to buy into the concept of having the FD or 3rd agency provide the service. As it stands right now, the municipality/town/village has a contract with XYZ Ambulance to provide a certain level of service. Thats where it starts and thats where it ends; If they are unhappy with that Ambulance company when the contract expires, they hire a different company. They don't have to worry about paying salaries, benefits, etc. With a municipality/town/village FD or 3rd agency providing the services the whole concept changes. They now have the responsibility of paying the salaries (which normally go up every year), medical benefits (the cost of which normally increases every year) for the employees and their families, Vacation relief, sick pay, retirement, uniform fees, and other contractually mandated benefits and perks which unionized employees enjoy (this of course is assuming that the FD/3rd Agency employees unionize, which is more or less a given). Now lets not forget that you'll most likely have to hire an adminstrative staff to oversee/conduct billing, coordination with insurance companies, collection agencies, etc. And remember these people will have to have a benefits package much like their EMS worker counterparts as well. So when given a choice, its easy to see why many municipalities/towns/villages choose the private sector; its simply much easier to let the Ambulance company deal with the whole mess.

Its also dependent upon basic economics; if the supply exceeds the demand, the monies paid to private sector EMS workers will be less then if the demand exceeded the supply. Right now it appears that there are more EMS workers then are required at least in certain counties and hence, lower salaries.

Finally, in all fairness, I am not an EMS worker, I only work fire, but I'm looking at it as a taxpayer would and I think its very realistic to consider that others with no connection to the fire/EMS service would view it in this way. Like I mentioned earlier, you'd have to do good sell to the public and politicans to make this happen.

[engine845 8]

And how many times had TC called out responding to Millbrook or PV (prior to the new contract) from Vassar hospital, or anything of that sort? Or what about Alamo responding to East Fishkill from Vassar Hospital (yes, it used to happen, I heard it myself). NDP has called out with long hauls for 911 jobs before as well.

All Commercial agency that I have even known in this area has had their incidences of extended responses, so let's be fair...

To quote what you yourself said;

Regardless, I wish the best to MLSS with this contract. Time will show everyone whether or not they can handle what they got themselves into, so at least give them a chance.

when does TC call out from Poughkeepsie to Millbrook? last I checked it was on the off hours that they are NOT contracted to be out there. There is no obligation to sit out there during times the contract doesn't specify.

[moggie6 54]

I can't believe how much of hornets nest this has stirred up.

[x1243 141]

1. Crews that staff the Town of Wappinger Ambulances do not 'technically' work for the town. They work for Transcare.

2. The Town Ambulances are Transcares. Not owned or maintained by the Town of Wappinger. They are just dedicated units for the town with the towns name on it.

3. In the past , a Wappinger Ambulance has gone into the City of Poughkeepsie under mutual aid.

TransCare has never gone to the city of Poughkeepsie. They have driven through plenty of times to go to the hospital. They had a patient exscape once on route 9 in the city but never responded to a alarm in the city. please post facts.....

[toastedsound 7]

TransCare has never gone to the city of Poughkeepsie. They have driven through plenty of times to go to the hospital. They had a patient exscape once on route 9 in the city but never responded to a alarm in the city. please post facts.....

Is this a joke?

[moggie6 54]

TransCare has never gone to the city of Poughkeepsie. They have driven through plenty of times to go to the hospital. They had a patient exscape once on route 9 in the city but never responded to a alarm in the city. please post facts.....

This is not true and i'm sorry but you are wrong. How can I say you are wrong? Because I was working on Engine 1 in Poughkeepsie when I had to wait for a Transcare ambulance when Alamo was not around. It was under mutual aid but they did respond to the city and make it to the scene. If you want feel free to ask myself or roger doger for the details.

This thread is a joke.

Edited March 6, 2010 by moggie6

[Guest]

How much money is the City of Poughkeepsie contract?

Here it is, right from the Contract bid itself: Contractor agrees to transport at no cost to the City and from an article in the Pok Journal: TransCare, a Brooklyn-based company with offices in Poughkeepsie and the Town of Wappinger,

has provided service to the city, but without a contract.

Mayor John Tkazyik said the city has not had a contract with an ambulance service provider since the

[NYanks042 1]

They do Medic 276 and medic 267 believe I know for a fact they do!!!

Thomas

Actually MLSS runs 2 units out of their Fishkill reporting station (Medic 270, Medic 279). 2 Units out of Wappingers reporting station (Medic 268, Medic 267) and 1 unit in Poughkeepsie as of right now (Medic 291).

MLSS does not sign agreements as far as "guarenteed # of ambulances"....They Guarentee responce times, which in most cases is 8 min 59 sec. or Less per CAAS standards!

[Guest]

After reading all of the posts here about MLLS most do not know our operation and most will not know until you have an oppurtunity to work for the MLSS family. Besides being the premier agency in the Hudson valley we have accountability within our employees which I am very proud of and thats what has gotten us to be the premier provider. Besides there is so much behind the scenes that most of you don't see for instance MLLS is the reason we as ALS providors have cpap now in our protocols we are the company that took it upon ourselves to for go the expense to be the pilot company in the Hudson Valley to get everyone the availability of cpap now if your providor chooses not to have such a valualbel tool well I'm sorry for you. I also am not able to elaborate but there is also new technology that is being tested in the field as we speak.So the bottom line is instead of bashing the MLLS family come on over to New Windsor and see for yourself what we are about. That goes for all of you that can be accountable for your actions. Remember there is no life like Mobile life