By Kevin Coughlin
Morristown is turning to the Atlantic Ambulance Corp. to reinforce the town’s beleaguered volunteer ambulance squad, which is so short-staffed that the Morris Minute Men severed a mutual aid agreement this month.
The town council is poised on Tuesday to approve an agreement with Atlantic to cover for the Morristown Ambulance Squad, which only is capable of staffing four- to five of the 14 shifts per week, according to town officials.
Morristown’s squad had been paying contracted with Atlantic to pick up the slack; the Morristown Fire Department also has responded to ambulance calls.
Over the last two years, the volume of Morristown calls has posed “an undue burden” on the Minute Men, according to their president, Dave Schulz.
This year, the Morris Plains organization filled in for the Morristown Ambulance Squad 180 times, Schulz said in a letter to Mayor Tim Dougherty.
Over the same period, the Minute Men were asked to provide mutual aid coverage to Hanover, Randolph, Harding, Parsippany and Madison on only 50 occasions.
The Morristown Ambulance Squad, meanwhile, has covered for the Minute Men approximately 10 times, Schulz said.
“This unbalanced ratio is not reflective of mutual aid,” he wrote.
Schulz added that the decision to sever ties with Morristown was not taken lightly.
“However, as we do not bill for services there is a significant value of these services that we end up covering ‘out-of-pocket,’ and more importantly, every time we respond into Morristown, the responding Minute Men ambulance is no longer available for medical calls in Morris Plains and the Township of Morris.”
Most troublesome, Schulz said, was the impact on his members, some of whom already are answering calls around the clock.
“There are nights where hours of sleep are lost due to response into Morristown, with the Minute Men crew covering more calls in Morristown than in our home coverage area. Further, there are instances where we have had to have hometown calls covered by an adjacent (billing-for-service) squad because our ambulance was covering a call in Morristown.”
DWINDLING MEMBERSHIP, LOOMING EVICTION
Karen Johansen, president of the Morristown Ambulance Squad, did not return calls seeking comment. In August, she told the town council that the squad was down to about 20 members, from a high of 45 a few years ago.
The squad also is on the verge of eviction from its headquarters, which will be demolished to make way for apartments in Phase II of the Speedwell Avenue redevelopment.
Over the last year, the town halved its funding for the squad, to $30,000. The squad has responded to its shifting fortunes by charging for its emergency services.
Jillian Barrick, who started as Morristown’s business administrator last month, said she hopes a new home can be found for the squad by year’s end. The council has passed a resolution expressing support for the organization, established 54 years ago.
Council members Alison Deeb and Michelle Dupree Harris abstained last month from a vote temporarily authorizing Atlantic Ambulance to cover Morristown’s calls, a move necessitated by the Minute Men’s pullout on Nov. 1, 2015.
Deeb objected to the last-minute resolution presented by the Mayor’s office. Harris, who participated in the council meeting by telephone, said she had not had a chance to view the document.
Barrick said the ambulance situation was at the top of her priority list when she took the job on Oct. 13. She gathered data, met with all the parties, and worked to ensure an arrangement that protected residents and was “not adversarial” to the Morristown Ambulance Squad.
“The time it took to assemble all of these pieces ran up to the day of the council meeting [on Oct. 27], resulting in the late starter,” Barrick said via email. She said was pleased that emergency services were not interrupted when the Minute Men bowed out.
Atlantic, an affiliate of Atlantic Health Services, parent of Morristown Medical Center, only will bill insurance companies for its services, according to the Mayor. Residents without insurance won’t be charged, continuing the Morristown Ambulance Squad’s policy of not charging those who cannot afford payment, he told the council last month.
UPDATE: Atlantic Health spokesperson Elaine Andrecovich said on Tuesday that Morristown “residents who do not have insurance will be billed directly, though each case will be evaluated to see if the recipient is eligible for financial assistance.” She also said the Morristown Ambulance Squad has not been paying the Atlantic Ambulance Corp. for coverage in town.
In August, Morristown Ambulance Squad President Karen Johansen told the town council that her squad contracted with Atlantic to cover three days a week.
That was not a paid contract, said town Administrator Jillian Barrick.
Why not hire municipal EMTs just like the FD? Bill residents’ insurance and if they don’t have insurance, don’t go after them. I don’t understand the logic of having a paid fire department and a volunteer EMS agency? Does this mean they are putting the value of property above the value of life?(not referring to the few cases where firemen rescue people). Staffing 2 ambulances 24/7 AND paying the EMTs a good salary will cost a few hundred thousand a year(including equipment, ambulances, etc). The money received from insurance bills will likely cover that cost, and possibly more. Everyone wins! Except the insurance companies.
Most people are maybe not concerned about an emergency pick up until they themselves need one. Aside from the politcs in this issue Atlantic Health should pony up the money to help run the Morristown squad . That way they could gain more volunteers and provide this needed service. Atlantic Health makes millions in Morristown . There us no reason why they can help pay the town to transport ill patients in need. This should have been brought up in the resent agreements with Atlantic Health on helping Morristown.
How Do you come up with cheaper to hire 2 emts at 15?? Which is below the rate of a EMT but if you do the math based on 15$ hour you will come up with 100K more a year based on 24 hours of coverage
What the real disappointment and failure is, is that Councilwomen Deeb and Harris both abstained on the vote for EMS coverage. Those are counted as NO’s in my book especially when it comes to ensuring the safety of the residents who they represent. How could they sit there and not vote? They failed in all aspects of their job as council representatives. Simply put they put every Morristown resident in danger.
“Concerned About EMS” you are failing to see the big picture in this situation. The fire department has been covering calls for Morristown EMS already, which Morristown taxpayers are paying the bill for by having to pay the overtime of the firemen who staff those calls. On top of that several times while the fire department was out doing EMS calls they could have been out fighting fires which were covered by mutual aide from other towns. This is a needed to provide coverage for the EMS services to the town. In a perfect situation we would have enough volunteers to cover all of the needs of Morristown but that is not the case.
It’s not worth having 2 FFs staff an ambulance at $80K PER FF when they can just hire 2 EMTs at $15/hr.
Once again we are crapped on by our illustrious commitee. Where does our tax money go? Atlantic. Meanwhile there is a paid fire department with an ambulance. Why wouldn’t the mayor want to add another ambulance to the Fire Dept., rather than give all the money to Atlantic. The same money that is raked in by Atlantic could simply pay for another ambulance. Do I smell that small town politics again?
Just so I’m clear, MMC pays no taxes, and now they are making money by stealing our resources? Is anybody else confused about this decision? Just more politians that think they know what they are doing about our lives without getting the facts. Furthermore they build more and more condos.
I don’t blame the Minute Men one bit.