North Stonington ambulance company moves toward part-time staff
North Stonington — The town's only ambulance company is proposing to move from per-diem to set part-time positions after difficulty covering its shifts last summer.
Under the budget proposal presented by North Stonington Volunteer Ambulance Company President Brian Elias to the town selectmen Tuesday, the majority of the company's staff will be hired on a part-time basis, rather than per diem.
Under the proposal, the company's building would be staffed by two part-time employees at any given time. Each part-time employee would work 24 hours per week. No additional staff members would be added, and some members would be retained on a per-diem basis to fill in when needed.
Because per-diem staff are not obligated to take a shift, the company in the past had only budgeted for 85 percent of its shifts to be filled. This year Elias said the budget reflects funding for 100 percent of its shifts.
“It does not fully solve the problem of a guaranteed shift,” Elias said, because it doesn’t prevent someone from calling out. “But it applies a reasonable stopgap."
The town's share of the ambulance company budget would total $314,000, a roughly 18 percent increase over last year’s $265,000 budget. Elias had requested $294,624 in last year's budget, but that request was cut at a Board of Finance meeting to a zero percent increase.
First Selectman Shawn Murphy, who requested the part-time budget option, has said at previous selectmen's meetings that he will be requesting an estimate from American Ambulance to cover the town, in order to have a baseline to compare with the North Stonington Volunteer Ambulance Company's proposal.
He noted that he looked at the system in the Town of Griswold, which bills American Ambulance based on the number of calls that company responds to.
However, Elias said, that system doesn’t reflect the costs to the company when the ambulance is inactive, and usually calls bring in revenue. Plus, he said, there are a "lot of cost savings to keeping it as a nonprofit based organization."
In a letter to the selectmen, Elias also said that his company anticipates an increase in the billing revenue of $12,000 due in part to an increase in allowed billing rates.
The budget also calls for $50,820 in capital spending, to replace an ambulance stretcher and corresponding ambulance lift system, as well as two electronic vital signs monitors. Both are part of the company's five-year capital plan.
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