RANDOLPH — The Randolph Regional EMS Corporation marked its five-year anniversary this month and reflected on improvements made since its beginning.

The most prominent change is the agency’s recent acquisition of a fly car that has been added to the fleet of two ambulances. The organization recently acquired a 2017 Ford Explorer Police Interceptor utility vehicle that was put into service Jan. 17.

Dave Senn, president of Randolph Regional EMS Corporation (RREMS), explained that, when a call comes in, the fly car will enable EMTs or on-duty paramedics to go to the scene and immediately start medical care rather than waiting for an ambulance driver.

“The medical personnel can triage to determine what needs to be done and a lot of times people don’t need to be transported,” he said. “If the person does need to be transported, the EMS personnel has already started care and treatment.”

Senn said the fly car is ideal because without volunteer people at the base, it gives the EMS staff the chance to get somebody on the scene to begin care. In a cardiac arrest situation, one person can now start doing high-quality resuscitation by themselves until help arrives with the AutoPulse, an automated CPR device. According to Senn, Randolph EMS is the only predominantly volunteer EMS in the area with an AutoPulse device.

Senn said the fly car, as it’s set up, costs $45,000 and is much more economical to run than an ambulance that costs $180,000. Having a fly car also keeps the ambulance in town, so it will be more available.

“We want to have that fly car staffed and ready to start doing patient care, then pull an ambulance in to transport,” he said. “Unfortunately, you have to develop the finances, the base and the call volume to justify what you’re doing. Having paid staff and a fly car go hand-in-hand. It’s going to make the fly car much better and it’s also going to make it much easier for us to justify paid staff by having that vehicle. The idea is a great concept and I’m pretty excited to get it going. It’ll be a good asset.”

RREMS started Jan. 1, 2013 with 21 members including four Advanced Life Support (ALS) personnel and 11 emergency medical technicians (EMT). Today, the organization has 41 members that include 11 paramedics and 15 EMTs.

Senn said two part-time staff members will soon be on duty 20 hours a week and cover opposite days at the EMS base at the Randolph Fire Department. Operations Manager Seth Lecceadone of Randolph joined the staff in September and is already on duty. Matt Elderkin of Frewsburg will become the second part-time staff member in February and will serve as assistant operations manager and training officer. He is also a member of the Kennedy Volunteer Fire Department.

“We’re going to have paid staff here at the base from 6 or 7 a.m. until 4 or 5 p.m. These are difficult times of the day to field a crew,” he said. “Based on our numbers, that’s when we have our highest volume of calls, and it’s the hardest time for volunteer people to be available because they are working.”

Through the consolidation of its emergency medical services, Randolph EMS will be able to improve service, training and compliance with the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) reporting/standards and record keeping.

“When we developed the corporation, the five-year plan was to try and incorporate the surrounding EMS services to consolidate personnel and utilize the equipment, but to also pool resources,” he said. “We were relying on mutual aid for additional calls, but mutual aid is not there because there are no volunteers.”

Senn said since they started, they’ve paid $75,000 back to the Randolph Fire District for the ambulance and equipment. Then, Coldspring EMS approached them to assume their operations because they had only one EMT and two drivers. He said Randolph EMS assumed them at their request and they’re working on paying Coldspring’s tax base back for their equipment. He said now they’re covering Coldspring, instead of needing to be dispatched when Coldspring cannot field a crew.

“When we did this and merged with Coldspring, we also bought their ambulance housed in Coldspring, which puts a second ambulance in our fleet that we need. That gives us the ability to cover these additional calls without going back to the tax base and making them buy another vehicle that we can’t justify,” he said.

“Randolph EMS currently leases a bay at both the Randolph and Coldspring facilities. That way, we are actually putting some money back into the fire departments,” he said.

The goal of Randolph EMS is to improve emergency medical services in the area using income from billing for services. Senn emphasized that there is no taxpayer money going into the Randolph EMS organization. He said the only thing they get is grant money, which is federal money that is available through various grant programs.

The Randolph EMS has also established a Junior EMS Program to give high school students an opportunity to get contact hours and experience to help get into college-level medical program.

Thanks to a $65,239 federal grant and a donation from an estate received last April, Randolph EMS is better able to serve the people in the community. Senn said the funding allowed Randolph EMS to purchase some much-needed equipment, as well as critical safety and operations supplies. The agency used the funds to purchase a power loader (a one-touch system that alleviates lifting for patients on stretchers), portable radios to support the new emergency radio system in Cattaraugus County, and the AutoPulse.

Future plans include a new building located on property already purchased in East Randolph along Route 394. Senn said the building will have living quarters including four dorm-style rooms for a bunk-in program, as well as a room for training and a three-bay garage.

“Our plan is to have four people who will be able to live at our facility at no cost in exchange for giving us overnight coverage for so many hours a week,” he said.

Senn said Randolph EMS hopes to set the building up as a training facility and to be able to connect with other training sites in the area. If they can tie-in with those sites, people who want to take a paramedic or EMT class will be able to do their training in-house via teleconferencing.

The RREMS covers 180-square miles including the Town of Napoli to Lower Edgar Road, a small portion of the Town of Conewango and to the county line to the west, all of Steamburg, the Town of Red House and the Quaker area of Allegany State Park. Senn said in reference to volunteer coverage area, RREMS probably has the largest response area seen.

(Contact reporter Deb Everts at salpressdeb@gmail.com.)