By Becca Y. Gregg
Reading Eagle
EXETER TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Just days after the Muhlenberg Area Ambulance Association handed off the reins to Exeter Township’s fire-department-based emergency medical service, the department had its brand-new service model tested last week.
First, there was the two-vehicle accident at Perkiomen Avenue and Gibraltar Roads late Wednesday afternoon that sent an SUV occupied by multiple children onto its side. A two-alarm fire followed the next day, damaging an apartment building in the 900 block of Guilford Court, near Eastwick Drive."Those were both opportunities to demonstrate how the fire-based EMS has been working for us,” Exeter Township Deputy Fire Chief Chris Chamberlain said Friday.
“Having our personnel that can do EMS and fire at the accident scene, the crews were able to go into EMS mode and treat the patients, and then go into rescue mode to help them out of the car,” he said.
It was a similar scenario at the fire Thursday afternoon.
“The ambulance crews arrived the same time as fire, and once they determined there were no victims or anyone to treat, they were able to assist the firefighters in stopping the fire,” said Chamberlain, who is in charge of EMS in the department. “That flexibility really is key, and one of the benefits I think of what we’re doing.”
Cross-trained
In the months since being tapped as the township’s primary 911 provider, the Exeter Fire Department has hired eight full-time employees and an additional dozen or so part-timers. A few of the part-timers came from the Exeter Ambulance Association, which prior to March had served as the township’s primary provider for more than four decades.
“We did a pretty vigorous interview and hiring process,” Chamberlain said. “One of the requirements we had for our paramedics and EMTs was that they had certification as a firefighter. If they didn’t, we asked them, would they be willing to get it within the next year? So, pretty much all the folks we brought on board, in addition to their EMS training, are also certified as firefighters.”
Exeter Fire took over as the primary 911 provider in March after being designated for the role by township supervisors in December.
In the months that followed, the department operated under an agreement with the Muhlenberg Ambulance Association, which stepped in to fill the gaps and provide coverage while Exeter worked toward becoming a fully operational EMS provider.
That aid agreement lasted until this month, when, more than a month ahead of its original timeline, Exeter went into service as a fully functional, fire-department-based EMS.
“The staff started on Sept. 1, and we had them in for a couple weeks doing some orientations and working with the Muhlenberg crews that were here,” Chamberlain said. “And then we took over completely on the 17th of September, that morning.”
‘Highly qualified’
The changeover followed Exeter’s receipt a day earlier of its advanced life support license, the final piece of the puzzle.
“Since then, we’ve been operating independently, and handling all the 911 calls that have been coming in,” Chamberlain said. “A lot of things can be expected with starting up an ambulance service from scratch. There are a lot of challenges with that, and we’re still working some bugs out. But I think for the most part things are going fairly smoothly.”
Though Exeter’s EMS service is brand new, Chamberlain is quick to stress that his crews are not. Each came to Exeter with years of experience.
“The personnel are highly qualified individuals,” he said. “There’s a high-level of competency and capability in providing EMS among the staff.”
Exeter Township Fire Chief Robert Jordan called his new EMS personnel “the cream of the crop.”
“I’m so pleased with their enthusiasm and energy and how they’re already thinking outside of the box,” he said. “I’m so pleased with our progress and all the continuous improvement that we’ve put into play.”
With a laugh, he likened himself to a proud papa.
“I get goose bumps saying it, but so far, so good,” Jordan said. “It’s exciting times right now.”
Different approach
Housed at the Reiffton station on West 33rd Street, Exeter is operating one ambulance 24 hours a day as an advanced life support unit, and a second, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. A third ambulance is expected to be licensed and put into operation within the next week.
The department is hoping to obtain a fourth unit within the next year, Chamberlain said, and as the needs of the township are further explored, the hours or location of the ambulances could be adjusted.
As for Muhlenberg, “They still remain a very close partner,” Chamberlain said. “Being a startup, they’ve said, ‘Hey, if you guys run into a jam, let us know and we’ll help you out.’ So they were fantastic partners. They allowed us to do what we needed to do to get this up and started.”
Exeter isn’t the first in the county to operate a fire-department-based EMS service. But they’re doing it a little differently from the others, Chamberlain said.
“The fire department took this opportunity to develop more of an all-hazards approach, where the personnel on duty at Exeter Fire can basically handle whatever emergency that comes down the pipeline, whether it’s a medical call or a fire emergency,” he said. “And I think that’s a very efficient way to do the service.”
Both Chamberlain and Jordan circled back to Thursday’s apartment fire as a prime example of the efficiency of the model.
“We instantly had four additional firefighters that were available to help with that fire,” Chamberlain said.
Jordan added: “We put our EMS folks in service for a very short period of time, but enough time to knock down the fire and bring the fire under control, if you will.”
Initial estimates put the damage from the blaze at more than $50,000, Exeter Township Fire Marshal David M. Bentz said Thursday.
“It could have been a lot worse,” Jordan said. “The gist of it is, I know it’s just a short snapshot of the program, but at least initially, I think in this case it paid a lot of dividends.”
(c)2015 the Reading Eagle