Concerns Arise Over Emergency Medical Response Timing
NEWINGTON - Late response time-related fines for Newington emergency medical response providers are around $100,000 for a period starting in July 2013 and ending this past March.

       The records, provided to Town Councilor Maureen Klett by Town Manager John Salomone, list a series of response times and subsequent fines for American Medical Response (AMR), which provides ambulance services to Newington alongside the town’s own all-volunteer Newington Emergency Medical Services (NEMS).

       The records were given to and released by town resident Scott Greczkowski, who had asked for them.

       At a recent Town Council meeting, Greczkowski expressed concern regarding a then-reported $50,000 in uncollected response time-related fines.

       â€"While I believe the town should collect the money, my bigger concern is for the safety of our residents,” Greckowski wrote in an email. â€"Without charging the fines there is no reason for the ambulance companies to properly staff our town to handle emergency calls within the contracted times. For many medical emergencies every minute without proper medical care could be life or death.”

       Currently, NEMS covers Monday through Friday, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., while AMR takes 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. NEMS is on duty for 24 hours on weekends and major holidays. The two are in the process of restructuring the agreement so that NEMS covers all shifts--a discussion that prompted the Town Council to approve a one-year extension of its contract with them at the June 23 meeting.

       It was during that time that concerns regarding response times were brought up. Under the current agreement, NEMS and AMR are required to respond within 9 minutes for emergency calls and 15 minutes for non-emergency situations.

       A $250 fine is imposed in the event of a response time that exceeds those standards, but the records provided by Salomone included instances where $500 was charged.

       Both the Emergency Medical Services Committee--of no affiliation with NEMS or AMR--and NEMS Assistant Chief Laura Bramucci contend that responders have never received complaints from the community regarding response times.

       â€"The standards are changing on an area basis,” said EMS Committee Chair Scott Woods during the June 23 meeting. â€"You have to apply it to each community. If we were a rural community, that certainly couldn’t be applied.”

       It typically takes between 1 to 2 minutes for dispatch to receive and forward a call. The question is, should that be counted as part of the response time?

       â€"The debate now, is, when do we start the clock?” Brammucci said around the time of the contract extension.

       The town has until Nov. 1 to discuss the response time issue with AMR and NEMS. After that, it goes to nonbinding mediation, but Salomone said that he expects to reach an agreement on the matter before then.

       Salomone and other Council members noted that although there have not been issues with response times under previous contracts, the past year has seen questions in that regard arise. Before the current agreement, the response time standards were changed.
MORE NEWINGTON NEWS  |  STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA  |  Aug 19 2015  |  COMMENTS?