AMED’s board this week approved an arrangement under which it will take over ambulance service for Martinsburg and neighboring North Woodbury Township from the Hollidaysburg American Legion Ambulance Service.

Martinsburg Borough Council chose AMED after reviewing proposals submitted by both organizations in response to a request for proposals, in anticipation of the expiration of the borough’s contract with HALAS at the end of this year, according to AMED Executive Director Gary Watters.

AMED will need to hire about eight more employees to cover the new territory, which will add about 800 calls a year over 21 square miles, where about 3,000 people live, according to Watters.

AMED has already been ramping up its workforce, having hired 19 employees since August, mainly to ease its struggles finding workers to cover transports from local hospitals to hospitals where they can get higher-level care — trips that often keep those employees out-of-service for other duties for long periods of time, Watters said.

AMED will be paying $1,000 a month to rent the borough-owned ambulance station, with the borough covering all utilities, Watters said.

It’s a reasonable rate, he said.

The board also approved the formal takeover of an area of Reade Township, Cambria County, that it has been serving “by default” for years anyway, Watters said.

The move came at the request of a township supervisor, according to Watters.

It will enable residents of that area to buy memberships, which can make the service more affordable for them, Watters said.

AMED previously refused to sell memberships in that area, due to the lack of a formal agreement, he said.

Without a formal agreement, there’s a chance that an ambulance service may not meet all the “terms and conditions of the membership,” Watters wrote in a text.

There will be no need to hire additional workers to handle Reade, Watters said.

AMED has been expanding into some outlying areas because smaller ambulance services have been struggling, according to Watters.

They’ve been struggling largely due to inadequate insurance reimbursements, Watters said.

“Reimbursement for ambulance (services) stinks,” he said. “That’s why a lot of them are going out of business.”

AMED is able to thrive because its size and call volume allow it to work efficiently, he said.

There are about 95 employees, according to information from Watters.

It is handling about 60 calls a day, he said.

There are small services paying workers to take as few as two calls a day, he said.

“The biggest cost is people sitting and waiting,” he stated.

The solution to the problem for those small services may not necessarily be giving way to larger organizations like AMED, but can be instead to “buddy up” with one another, he said.

But there can be resistance to consolidation, he said.

“Oftentimes, a lot of people have a lot of pride,” he said. “Organizations don’t want to give up their autonomy.”

It’s a lot like the feeling that exists in volunteer fire companies that are considering consolidation, and in church parishes contemplating merger, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.