Harrison EMS Issues

[Dinosaur 844]

On 4/3/2016 at 10:17 PM, EMSLt said:

Why not just merge Harrison EMS and Harrison Fire? Firefighter Paramedics.

 

There aren't enough firefighters in Harrison already.  Now giving them double duty further dilutes their strength so you wind up with nobody for a fire engine or nobody for an ambulance. 

In this case, there's nothing to be gained by trying that.

[Gomer 25]

Latest article from LoHud:

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/harrison/2016/04/04/harrison-ems-service-continues-now/82608458/

 

Some interesting points. Kind of seems like a witchhunt.

[wcr20 17]

On 4/3/2016 at 10:17 PM, EMSLt said:

Why not just merge Harrison EMS and Harrison Fire? Firefighter Paramedics.

 

Also - remember that the Town/Village of Harrison, like many other municipalities in Westchester is protected by not 1, not 2, but 3 different fire departments (Harrison, West Harrison, and Purchase) 

[turk182 37]

3 hours ago, wcr20 said:

 

Also - remember that the Town/Village of Harrison, like many other municipalities in Westchester is protected by not 1, not 2, but 3 different fire departments (Harrison, West Harrison, and Purchase)

Actually it is four different departments.  City of Rye Fire Department is contracted to cover District 3 of the Harrison Fire district.

[NWFDMedic 58]

HEMS is a private service, so the town has no right to review their books.  They can, however, require statements of financial solvency as well as a periodic audit performed by a third party.  The town also has the right to require certain things in their contract, which I've seen in several contracts, especially with these "quasi-municipal" services.  If the town wants to require, for example, $100,000 of the money provided to go to training, HEMS could be asked to provide documentation of that.  If the town wants to pay a contract based on covering the "gap" between billing and recovery for town residents, they can ask for that documentation.  I was treasurer for one town ambulance that had a contract with the town stipulating that all funds received from the town had to go directly to operations related equipment/supplies/training and we provided documentation of that quarterly.  In fact, we maintained separate accounts for donations and such that we used for non-operations related expenses.

 

HEMS does not, however, have any requirement to "open the books" for the town.  As a not-for-profit, a lot of their information is available publicly anyway.  Although they are not required to do so, a lack of cooperation between a town and the "quasi-municipal" service generally ends up spelling trouble for the EMS service.