900 calls and counting

December marked the end of a year in the new relationship between Rockville Centre and the North Shore LIJ ambulance program, the first chapter in what both parties agree is a new but strong friendship.

North Shore LIJ, which was contracted by the village to provide ambulance services, responded to 919 calls in those first 12 months, from Dec. 1, 2008, to Nov. 31, 2009.

“It’s going extremely well,” said Alan Schwalberg, director of operations for the hospital’s Center for Emergency Medical Services. “I think everyone’s extremely satisfied — the village board, the community, the fire department, North Shore. The partnership has proved to be very successful.”

North Shore has an ambulance in Rockville Centre for 60 hours a week, Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. At other times, the village Fire Department’s ambulance is on call.

The partnership began in the final month of 2008 as a six-month pilot program, which cost the village $56,000. The first full-year contract began on June 1, 2009, and runs through May 31, and the total cost will depend on the number of calls North Shore responds to. The more calls, the less the service will cost the village. If the hospital responds to so many calls that insurance payments cover the cost of operating the ambulance, then the village will pay North Shore nothing. If there are not a large number of calls in a given contract year, however, the village will pay more, though the cost is capped at $108,000.

“We assimilated into the Fire Department structure,” Schwalberg said. “So when the Police Department or Fire Department gets notified of a case through the normal notification process, our unit responds to the call and takes care of the patient at that point.”

The program is the only one of its kind on Long Island. While similar arrangements are being made by other municipalities around the country for private companies to assist their emergency responders, Rockville Centre has the first such agreement on Long Island, and the results have been impressive.

During its weekday hours, the North Shore ambulance is staffed by at least one paramedic. Schwalberg explained that a paramedic provides the highest level of pre-hospital care a person can get. “It’s been a win-win for everyone,” he said. “Response times are under three and a half minutes on average. For a suburban metropolitan area, it’s much lower than what would be considered average, there’s no doubt about that.”

The fast responses are attributable in part to the terms of North Shore’s contract: If the ambulance doesn’t respond in under nine minutes to 90 percent of the calls received, the village is refunded 10 percent of the cost at the end of the year.

The agreement has eased the burden on the village Fire Department, which responds to 1,800 or so calls for ambulances in an average year. “It means that what would have been the volunteer Fire Department’s coverage, we know now that the North Shore guys are going to be there to help and pitch in, and it just took the pressure off the Fire Department volunteers,” said Village Administrator Frank Quigley. “It’s precedent-setting in Nassau County, and we haven’t had any problems or difficulties. We’ve only had successes.”

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