Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Medic 91 ambulance to be discontinued
Good Fellowship Ambulance will take over medical care coverage
WEST CHESTER » Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital Medic 91 will be discontinued in January, when Good Fellowship Ambulance officially takes over the service.
The hospital announced to its paramedics last Thursday that Medic 91 will be coming to an end on Jan. 8, 2018 and the medical care coverage will be transitioned to Good Fellowship Ambulance.
Chester County Hospital President Mike Duncan on Monday said the primary reason for the transition is because rules for emergency services have changed over the past few years. He explained that historically the hospital had paramedics while the ambulances corps did not, but that’s changing. With the available staff, there were times that Medic 91 and Good Fellowship Ambulance would respond to the same call. Duncan said in that case, the patient would be billed by both units for one service.
More fire and ambulance crews in Chester County have become ALS-certified, now with 13 ALS-certified units serving Chester County, including Medic 91, and the service boundaries have also changed.
Good Fellowship has a longterm lease with the hospital and
shares employees. Duncan said that rather than compete with them, they will be joining them. He explained that Good Fellowship will conduct the hiring process and hire some of the current staff. He said the health system based in West Chester will assist the remaining personnel to “find a new home” including a job within Penn Medicine.
Duncan said the discussions began about six years ago for the parties involved to “find the right way to organize this service.” The discussions often began and stopped during that time. He noted that Good Fellowship has been a partner with a close relationship and the hospital officials will work with Good Fellowship during the transition period.
“It was a hard decision to make because these are very capable professionals delivering services,” Duncan said. However, he added that, “we know it’s the right step for the community.”
He said there will be complete continuity in services. Medic 91 and Good Fellowship Ambulance both provide ALS services to the following nine municipalities:
West Chester, West Goshen, West Bradford, Newlin, Pocopson, Thornbury, West Whiteland, Birmingham and Westtown. In addition, Medic 91 provides coverage to parts of East Goshen, which Good Fellowship will add to its coverage area. Good Fellowship Ambulance will increase its ALS coverage by scheduling a minimum of two medics 24/7, with up to four medics staffed during peak hours, according to hospital officials.
“The communities currently served by Medic 91 will not see any disruption to EMS calls,” the hospital said in a letter.
Hospital officials noted that insurance reimbursement rates for emergency medical services (EMS) continue to decline statewide, year after year. Duncan said that getting reimbursed for such services can be difficult, and the combination of knowing the hospital was losing money while competing with another server, that it would be better to allow Good Fellowship to provide the services. He added that it will be less consuming for the patient who would be receiving the same level of service.
Medic 94 Executive Director Bob Hotchkiss in southern Chester County said his EMS company is somewhat different from Medic 91 in that it is not part of a hospital, although the vehicles are housed at Jennersville Hospital in Penn.
Medic 94 is an advanced life support unit that is called as an emergency room on wheels and serves people who are in life threatening situations like heart attacks. They do not do transport victims. Rather, they stabilize them for transport to the hospital in a basic life support vehicle.
Hotchkiss said Medic 94, which was recently named by the Pennsylvania Health Department as the best in the state, is financially dependent not on the hospital but on community support, fees and fundraising campaigns.
He added, however, that more and more advanced life support units are joining with basic life support ambulances, very much like Medic 91, and he believes Good Fellowship has been preparing for this transition for years.
He said he believes the transition will be “seamless” and patients will see very little difference in service.
Duncan said the transition of coverage is not related to any personnel issues and that all staff members involved provide great care.
West Goshen police announced last Thursday that they filed charges against Kenneth T. Mason, 50, of Wilmington, Delaware, a paramedic who worked as part-time mobile vehicle paramedic with Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital. He also worked as a fulltime flight paramedic with Jefferson University Hospitals, but has been placed on suspension without pay pending the outcome of an investigation.
Police said the victim reported that during an overnight ride-along Aug. 9 he fell asleep in the ambulance when he and Mason took a break. Police said the victim reported he woke up at 4:50 a.m. to Mason allegedly touching him inappropriately. Police said they began the investigation that day and later charged Mason with corruption of minors and indecent assault.