New Plan Puts Duty EMS Crews on Standby for the Summer

While the East End Ambulance Coalition plans for the future of the Emergency Medical System on the South Fork, it's also thinking short-term about ways to improve response times. 

Come July 1, at least one emergency medical technician and an ambulance will be on standby, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., to respond to calls within the six fire districts that make up the Town of East Hampton, from Montauk Point to Water Mill, the western-most point of Bridgehampton Fire District. 

The coalition is already considering a proposal to create a paid first responders program town-wide in time for next summer, but Philip Cammann, a paramedic who sits on the subcommittee, said the coalition knew "we needed to try alievate some of the delay in mustering up crews" this summer. 

The on-duty crew will be made up of volunteers from the various EMS agencies, each of which will supply an ambulance on its duty day. The plan is similar to night squads already in place at many agencies, except the duty ambulance crews will be responding outside their jurisdictions. 

"Think of a duty crew ambulance as a first responder that can transport," Cammann said. 

The goal is to have a crew on call Monday through Saturday for the whole summer, but Cammann said they only worked out a schedule for the month of July so far. There are still six to seven days left to be filled, but he's confident that once the program picks up steam, more volunteers will come forward. "And if we don't, we're no worse off," he said. 

East Hampton Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen – who also runs the village's communications center, which dispatches five of the six agencies – has voiced his concern about long ambulance wait times. "At this point, anything would help," he said. 

"There have been 20- and sometimes 30-minute delays, across the board. It's certainly unacceptable," Larsen said, adding that not only is there a delay in patient care, but prolonged calls tie up police and dispatchers. 

Still, he said he is understanding of the problems facing the volunteer agencies. "I'm appreciative of their efforts. I give them a lot of credit. There's not a lot of credit for the people who do it. It's a lot of time away from their families," he said. "But we still have a job to do." 

The East End Ambulance Coalition has gone from meeting every other month to every other week to address the issues and come up with an action plan, Cammann said. "We're very aware that we need to make some changes, we need to improve upon things," he said. 

Under the plan, as soon as a call is dispatched in any one of the six districts, the crew on stand-by will be dispatched also. The crew will head to the fire house or ambulance barn to pick up the rig and then respond to the call, unless the home agency confirms a crew in the meantime. If that happens, the duty crew will go back in service to answer another call. 

Once the duty crew and ambulance are taken out of the rotation because they are out on call, the current mutual aid system simply takes over, Cammann said. 

Cammann acknowledged that the plan puts a burden on that one ambulance and the crew that have signed up to be on call that day. "The key of it is: you're basically paying it forward. Tomorrow, I'm going to be helping you out," he said. "We're all committing a little bit more but we're getting big benefits in return."
 
Not every EMS agency is able to commit time and resources. Cammann said the Montauk Fire Department, which instituted the first paid advanced life support system in the Town of East Hampton earlier this month, won't provide an ambulance. However, if the duty ambulance is needed in Montauk, it will go there, he said. 

The same goes for the Amagansett and Springs fire districts, which also won't be supplying an ambulance on a regular basis, though he said members have expressed an interest in combining with other agencies to cover a day.

"We don't have the resources," Springs Fire Department Chief Ben Miller said. "As it stands right now, including our AEMT, we only have 10," he said, adding that they all work during the day. Springs doesn't have a business district, so most work out of the district, too. 

"It's a tough thing to ask volunteers to do," said Miller, himself an ambulance driver. "We do think it's a good idea — it's a good starting point."