Griswold Ambulance sold, town officials seeking alternative service
By Janice Steinhagen
Reminder News |
Griswold Ambulance officials anounced Sept. 17 that the company would be acquired by Middlesex Hospital Oct. 17. Photo by Janice Steinhagen.
After a year on the market and several contentious years trying to wrest funding from town officials, Griswold Ambulance is selling off its assets and finally closing up shop. Ambulance staff were informed Sept. 17 that Middlesex Hospital had agreed to buy out the company. The sale will be finalized Oct. 17.
For the company's two full-time staffers and 26 per-diem employees, it's the emotional end of an era. "We put our hearts and souls into that place for years, and it's being thrown away over politics," said emergency medical technician Dennis Cole, who has worked for the ambulance company for 10 years. He blamed the closure on "a group of older gentlemen fighting over something for the last 15 years, until they forgot what they were fighting about."
The Oct. 17 deadline has forced the issue of finding alternative ambulance service for Griswold and the surrounding towns covered by the 73-year-old ambulance company. The town had had a request for proposals (RFP) out for some months, and Griswold First Selectman Kevin Skulczyck said that the town is holding talks with a couple of local ambulance, though he declined to name the companies. He said that he had already met with the town's two fire department chiefs to discuss the matter.
"We will not see a disruption of services. We will have full-time 24 hour a day, 7 day a week service," said Skulczyck. "The state of Connecticut is aiding this process. They got the conversation going quicker, rather than later." The state mandates that municipalities provide ambulance service to their residents.
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Skulczyck said that although the sale was not unexpected, he was "truly disappointed" that the company did not respond to the RFP with a bid. "I believe I have done more to get a contract signed with them… but unfortunately we couldn't get there and unfortunately they reached the breaking point." He said in a news release Sept. 18 that the town would support the company's employees in seeking new jobs.
Ambulance company officials have long contended that the town has underfunded the company, leaving a significant shortfall between its insurance reimbursement and its operating expenses. But town officials argued that the ambulance company was unwilling to open its books fully to the town and that it was actually making a profit. A tentative agreement reached last December fell short of the company's hopes to sign a five-year contract with the town.
The ambulance service is reimbursed by insurance companies as well as Medicare and Medicaid, but ambulance officials have said that the reimbursement does not fully cover its costs for responding to calls. Despite the company's request for $158,000 in town funding for the current fiscal year, its line item was cut to only $20,000 by the time the budget was adopted. An April referendum to pay the company an additional $70,000 was approved by voters, and Cole said that the money had been used to pay bills for insurance and overhead costs.
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Ambulance company Chairman William Czmyr could not be reached for comment on the pending sale.
Cole said that a new state law slated to go into effect next month, which gives municipalities more power in determining how they provide ambulance services, may have speeded up the sale. "It's set up to keep politics out of [the process]," he said. He said that the ambulance company "had no skeletons in the closet" in terms of finances.
Jim Santacroce, the manager of emergency medical services for Middlesex Hospital, said that the hospital had agreed to purchase the company's two ambulances, along with accompanying permits and equipment. He said that the ambulance company's primary service agreement will be surrendered back to the state Department of Health's Office of Emergency Medical Services when the sale is finalized. He declined to reveal the purchase price, but the company's starting bid was previously reported at $350,000.
The local ambulance service was established in 1941 by the LaFlamme-Kusek Post 15 of the American Legion in Jewett City. It responds to calls in the neighboring towns of Canterbury, Preston, Lisbon, Moosup and Voluntown as well as Griswold.