Vernon headed toward paid EMS

VERNON — The Vernon Township Council is charting a course to bring paid emergency medical services to the township. Those will provide further assistance to overburdened volunteers and generate revenue for new equipment, township officials said.
The Council is expected to vote next month on an ordinance to establish a Division of Emergency Services to coordinate and administer the paid services alongside its volunteer ambulance squads. The details are still being hashed out — the Council went back to the drawing board Monday night after failing to move a first draft of the ordinance due to questions about costs and unclear wording in the text. However, the initial version of the measure calls for the fire marshal to serve as director of the new department. The director would serve under the supervision of a medical director and the township administrator.
With passage of the ordinance, the township will be able to move forward with efforts to shift to paid EMS assistance for its volunteer squads.
The move comes less than six months after Vernon struck up an unpaid agreement with Saint Clare's ambulance service. At the time, volunteers needed help covering their hardest-to-staff daytime hours.
At a meeting earlier this month, Business Administrator Charles Voelker said Saint Clare's originally agreed to pitch in three shifts per week, but that number has since grown to four. Thus, the township is looking to make the shift to paid services.
“The primary objective here is patient care,” Voelker said on July 10. “We want the best patient care that can be provided.”
It would cost Vernon an estimated $80,000 to cover the second half of this year with paid services, Voelker indicated. The total annual cost would be around $150,000. The Township wouldn't be contractually obligated to keep the paid services if the volunteer squads raise enough hands to cover all shifts at some point in the future, he added.
The paid squad, which would run during the daytime hours, would recoup money for its services through a soft-billing system. Voelker said funds beyond breakeven could be used to buy new equipment for the volunteer squads.
But that billing raised questions for Councilwoman Sandra Ooms at the July 10 meeting. Ooms sought reassurances that there would be equity in charges for residents who required EMS services both during the day and in the evening. Those concerns were echoed by several council members on Monday in Ooms' absence.
Council President Jean Murphy said she's hoping to address all council questions and comments in time to have the Ordinance back on the agenda for the first meeting in August.