Volunteers: EMS downsizing 'will cost lives'

May 16—WESTERNPORT — Allegany County's proposed $2 million EMS budget cuts will impact operations for local volunteer departments that respond to emergencies.

"If we lose the county staff ... the community suffers," Leeann Abernathy, chairperson for the Tri-Towns EMS board of directors, said via statement for the organization.

Conversely, when a volunteer company closes, the county incurs significant expenses for personnel, equipment, supplies and building expenses, she said.

"Fast forward to 2024 when the county commissioners are now faced with a deficit and need to trim spending," Abernathy said. "The downsizing of (EMS) personnel will cost lives."

Serving the communitySeptember will mark Tri-Towns' 50th year to serve the community, she said.

"Our station was built in the early 1900s and has been our home since 1974," Abernathy said.

Tri-Towns took over the building in 1999 and upgraded it several times to include a kitchen, bunk rooms, offices and two lounges for members.

"We have had a county medic since 2008 and both a county EMT and medic in our station 24/7 since 2019," she said. "We operate two ambulances and maintain a chase unit in our building."

Tri-Towns serves three counties in two states but only receives appropriations from Allegany County where it is based, Abernathy said.

"We are able to get our ambulance out 25% of the time on our own and 50% of the time with one county employee," she said. "We have one of the highest call volumes out of the volunteer stations with 1,300 calls alerted for 2023."

Fight for survivalTri-Towns EMS plans to take control of its financial future.

The organization's board of directors last week decided to terminate an agreement with the county "and take back over our billing so we can get some monies in before we go bankrupt," Abernathy said.

About four years ago, Tri-Towns reluctantly entered a deal to share its transport billing revenue with the county's Department of Emergency Services, she said.

Under the agreement, the county was to provide manpower for transport and oversee billing for the operation, Abernathy said.

But bills were slow to reach customers, which resulted in financial losses, she said.

"We have received no revenue from transporting patients to the hospital since last year," Abernathy said.

"We knew that it would take approximately three to six months to see revenue when the county took over our billing (but) we are now at month 11," she said.

Working togetherAn EMS call, including hospital transport, restocking of supplies and paperwork involved, averages two hours, Abernathy said.

Most volunteers maintain a job to feed their family and have other obligations that prevent them from manning a station around the clock, she said.

That's where the partnership between county and volunteer EMS workers becomes critical.

"We work very well with the county EMS employees that are assigned to our department," Abernathy said.

"We internally manage resources so that the county crew can come back to the station in case we get another call," she said.

Most county EMS employees at one time volunteered at Tri-Towns, Abernathy said.

Volunteer departments create "future EMS employees," she said.

Teresa McMinn is a reporter for the Cumberland Times-News. She can be reached at 304-639-2371 or tmcminn@times-news.com.