North Shore-LIJ EMS Chief Speaks to Nassau County Mayors

When it comes to recruiting emergency volunteers, many communities are feeling the pinch at a time of escalating costs and a growing elderly population takes hold on Long Island.

Seeking solutions, more than 75 government leaders mayors and village gathered at Williston Park's La Marmite Nassau County for the Village Officials Association.  Speaker Alan Schwalberg, vice president of the North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Center for Emergency Medical Services, discussed public-private partnerships now in seven communities that are making a difference.

“The shortage of volunteer fire, emergency and medical personnel, especially during daytime hours, and the skyrocketing costs of hiring EMS professionals have become difficult problems for local governments and fire districts throughout Long Island,” Schwalberg said.

But some communities are partnering with North Shore-LIJ for life-saving emergency ambulance and medical services. Founded more than 20 years ago, the Center for Emergency Medical Services claims to be the largest hospital-based ambulance service in the metropolitan area. With more than 600 employees and 110 ambulances and emergency support vehicles, the center responded to more than 135,000 emergency calls during 2013.

Schwalberg said that the center utilizes a global positioning system that instantly directs its ambulances to the right location in the shortest time. This system also allows dispatchers to track ambulance locations and speed in real-time.

Partially fueled by the growth of Long Island’s elderly population, the demand for emergency medical services has been increasing significantly.  Simultaneously, the number of residents who volunteer as firefighters and emergency medical technicians has declined.  Labor costs, pension benefits and municipal expenses are also adding higher costs to already overburdened local government budgets.

“Several years ago, at the request of the Rockville Centre Fire Department and the Village of Rockville Centre, we agreed to launch the first-of-its-kind public private partnership in Nassau County to provide 911 emergency response services,” Schwalberg said. 

“The program has been hugely successful for the village and has been hailed as a national model for the delivery of emergency and ambulance services,” he added.

Under the terms of the original agreement, North Shore LIJ provided ambulance and emergency medical services for the village weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. when local volunteers are in short supply. The village’s costs were based on the number of calls answered by North Shore LIJ, according to a press release. The more calls, the lower the cost. And to protect its taxpayers, Rockville Centre’s bottom-line costs were capped, regardless of the amount of calls, according to North Shore LIJ. The agreement was recently extended to provide for additional secondary coverage for the remainder of the week.

The center next developed a new partnership with the Village of Hempstead, which struggled with overtime costs and other challenges.  

In June 2012, the Hempstead Village Board of Trustees signed an agreement with North Shore-LIJ CEMS to deliver 24-hour, seven-day-a-week ambulance and emergency medical coverage to the village at no cost to Hempstead’s local government. 

“We are thrilled with the results,” Hempstead Mayor Wayne J. Hall said, according to a press release. “We have received more than 100 letters and emails from local residents complimenting us on the emergency services they received. And, we have saved a great deal of taxpayer money as well. We estimate that we have saved between one and one-half hours of police time for each and every call, resulting in a total of more than 7,000 police-hours saved.”

Over the past two years, the North Shore-LIJ CEMS has developed five more partnerships for delivering emergency ambulance services with the Nassau villages of Lake Success and Old Westbury, LaGuardia Airport, the State University of New York at Old Westbury and New York City’s Central Park Medical Unit.

"Every community is different," Schwalberg said. "There is no ‘one size fits all’ model when it comes to these partnerships. We can fashion an agreement that makes sense for every individual community.”