Local Emergency Services Evaluating Hospital Loss
 The North Adams Fire Department might see increased need for its firemen to help with medical services when North Adams Regional Hospital closes. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — With the potential closing of the North Adams Regional Hospital, local emergency services are preparing for extra duties.
First responders have been meeting to discuss possible plans to combat the extra services they may need to provide.
Without a local hospital, ambulance services must travel much farther to bring patients to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield or Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington, Vt. This will slow down ambulance turnaround times.
"I think part of our biggest issue right now is the turnaround times," John Meaney Jr., general manager of the North Adams Ambulance Service, said. "We typically had a 15-minute turnaround time and now we are looking at an hour and a half to two hours.”
Meaney believes that the ambulance service can effectively fight these longer travel times.
"We are currently in the planning phases, and we are prepared to ramp up our staffing," he said. "We actually had approval last week to purchase a new ambulance so that will bring our fleet to five ambulances."
Meaney stressed that the ambulance service will continue to provide full support even if the hospital is permanently closed down.
"We want to stress to the community when you call 911, you will still get an ambulance in a timely fashion, and we have agreements with other communities to back us up. We have had those in place for years," he said. "I think to meet the demand and to get people through this time I think we have what we need."
Williamstown Fire Chief Craig Pedercini agreed that the largest impact was going to be on EMS, including Village Ambulance Service in Williamstown.
"We're all kind of shell-shocked," he said. "I haven't had time to think about all of it.
"Are we going to be impacted by it? Absolutely. We may be dealing with patients longer while the ambulance is transporting someone to Pittsfield or Bennington," he said, and the question will be availability.
"There may be times when Village has two ambulances in Pittsfield. It's not going to be, 'I'm in North Adams. I'll be there in 10.'"
The longer ambulance turnaround times also generate problems in the fire department that support the services with first response. With more ambulances out in service, the fire department is responsible for more medical situations.
"It's a snowball effect with the hospital closing, and it's affecting everybody," North Adams Fire Director Stephen Meranti said.
Meranti explained that with fewer ambulances available in the garage, more stress is put on the Fire Department. This leaves fewer firefighters in the station, which could be troublesome if a fire occurs.
He anticipates that his department will receive many more calls and may have to bring in more firefighters off duty.
"If we are tied up on a medical call and we have a fire, we have to call in for more help," he said.
The ambulance service is working closely with the fire department to develop an effective first-response model.
"Personally, my next step is to sit down and get in touch with [North Adams Fire Director Steve] Meranti," Pedercini said. "At some point, we're going to have to get together with Williamstown, North Adams, Adams and Village and have a conversation about what we're up against. I'm hoping I can start that conversation tomorrow."
Adams Town Administrator Jonathan Butler said the town's public safety and emergency management team is putting together a contingency plan and the Council on Aging will be collaborating with neighboring communities about transportation to doctors' offices.
"It is our hope that this very difficult regional situation can be reconciled without the loss of services or resources that are vital to the Northern Berkshire Community," said Butler.
The police will also be affected by the hospital closing.
After discussing the issue with Police Director Michael Cozzaglio, Mayor Richard Alcombright shared concerns about police officer availability. Police often have to follow up on accidents or incidents that may require them to be at the emergency rooms.
"So if we have a cop in an ambulance and a cop in a cruiser, and they are going to spend maybe four hours in the emergency room at BMC," Alcombright said. "We are staffed at three or four cops, so what do we do?”
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