Transcare Pushes Into Dutchess Co.? Obtains Wappingers Cont?

[x635 4,066]

Apparently, Transcare (Formerly Metrocare) is now pushing into Dutchess County.

New ambulance service gets good grades  

 

It has been almost a month since the Town of Wappinger cancelled its ambulance contract with Alamo Ambulance and signed up with TransCare.  

Town Supervisor Joseph Ruggiero said the new provider is doing a great job. “We’ve had out of the first 100 calls that TransCare has done, 99 out of 100 of them they have had response times of between five and seven minutes, which is phenomenal,” he said. The town’s volunteer firefighters and residents have been giving positive feedback for the new service, Ruggiero said.  

The supervisor said, though, that he would expect Alamo to file some sort of legal action against the town for canceling its contract. The town board took that action because it felt Alamo had not lived up to it.  

-MidHudsonNews.com

 

[Guest alsfirefighter]

"Pushing" isn't a appropriate word. The Town of Wappingers was not satisfied (and in my opinion justlly so) with the service they were receiving from Alamo. This is after they voiced their concerns to them several times through different channels. If you ask me, its a great gig, all 911 and more money then what Alamo pays their employees.

[x635 4,066]

"Pushing" isn't a appropriate word.  The Town of Wappingers was not satisfied (and in my opinion justlly so) with the service they were receiving from Alamo.  This is after they voiced their concerns to them several times through different channels.  If you ask me, its a great gig, all 911 and more money then what Alamo pays their employees.

Pushing, moving,expanding, whatever, lol. Didn't mean it that way.

Competion is definetly a good thing in the commercial for-profit EMS business.

However, it would've been smarter,IMO, for Wappingers to create their own EMS, instead of having a for-profit commerical entity provide it. They don't contract out for their PD or FD, do they?

When you provide your own service, you have better control over its quality and operations. And let's not forget Transcare AKA Metrocare is still new to the area, lol!

[Guest alsfirefighter]

Seth some of the questions you asked can be answered based on interpretation. State Police Wappingers I know covers that area, I can't remember if the Village or Town of Wappingers has its own PD. There are also a few fire districts for the Town of Wappingers as well. Which I believe 2 of them are Hughsonville and New Hackensack. The Village has its own volunteer FD, but I do not know if they operate as a fire district or not. What I do have to say is, that the Town through the fire districts does keep a close eye on the ambulance service that serves them. Sometimes I don't always agree with some of the complaints. I do get a laugh when a fire chief moans about response time to a ankle injury, but meanwhile earlier that morning the same dept. hit 2nd or 3rd dispatch for a fire alarm. But that's the way it is. That is basically why Alamo is out. Town of Wappingers wants dedicated units to their area, and they were often stripped to cover multiple zones and to do transports. Best of luck to Metrocare in that area, its nice to see a little change. I hope it stays for the best.

[Medic137 6]

Transcare rigs with "Wappingers" on the door have already been seen doing transports out of Hudson Valley Hosp. Are these the "dedicated" rigs?

[jps385 0]

The Wapingers contract is typical of towns not wanting to pay for the level of service they desire. The contract pays $200,000 a year for three dedicated ambulances in a district that does less than 2000 calls a year. If you do the math thats probably a half million dollar a year loss for the company.

Alamo made it work by using the busses for other contracts, hence the disatisfaction. I'm not suprised Transcare is playing the same game I just thought it would take them longer to do so. It took them about a year to start using the New Rochelle buses for transports is the Bronx.

Someday muncipalities will learn that you get what you pay for and stop accepting low ball contracts which result in poverty level pay for ems personel contracts turning over every few years.

[emt301 4]

First, let me say that I'm certainly not trying to stick up for Transcare...I'm quite familiar with all of the unsavory and unethical games that companies such as Alamo and Transcare frequently play, after having spent a few years working in commercial ems myself.

That being said, these companies use system status management in their operations. It's possible that that the "Wappingers" rigs that have been sighted in Westchester may have just been rotated out of Wappingers, with the company still maintaining the contracted number of physical rigs still in district.

When Alamo had the Town of Wappingers contract....there were times when 3 rigs were actually manned in the town, but the rigs actually marked "Wappingers Ambulance" were on other details or out for maintenance. The slot in Wappingers was merely filled by an Alamo unit ( in other words, a unit marked as Alamo, not Wappingers Ambulance ) filled in.

Also to clarify....Transcare is covering Hughsonville, New Hackensack, and the northern part of the Chelsea Fire district. These are in the Town of Wappingers. Alamo continues to cover New Hamburg, Village of Wappingers, and the southern portion of the Chelsea fire district (which lies in the Town of Fishkill, bordering Beacon).