Quality EMS still stable, services elsewhere struggle
ADAMS TWP — The Quality EMS executive director thanked township’s supervisors Monday, Jan. 13, for helping make sure the department remained financially solvent while others in Pennsylvania shut their doors.
“Because of the municipalities we serve, we’ve been able to stay stable,” said Conrad Pfeifer, executive director of Quality EMS, said at the monthly supervisors’ meeting.
Pfeifer says Quality EMS was able to ride out 2024 thanks to contributions from the six municipalities it serves, which also includes Middlesex Township, Mars, Callery, Valencia and parts of Forward Township.
Last year, Adams Township contributed $125,000 to support Quality EMS, and will contribute another $125,000 this year.
“In late 2023, the board was very, very much concerned about where emergency service work was going,” Supervisor Russell Ford said. “In 2024, I think you guys have stepped up and done a phenomenal job.”
However, some EMS departments in other parts of the state, including nearby counties, aren’t so fortunate. Multiple EMS agencies in Pennsylvania were forced to shut their doors in 2024 due to financial difficulties, including one in Kecksburg, in Westmoreland County, as well as Lifestat Ambulance Service in Saltsburg, in Indiana County.
In addition, an entire hospital in Mercer County — Sharon Regional Medical Center — fell into bankruptcy earlier this month, closed its doors and was sold at auction to a new owner, leaving emergency services in that region in limbo.
Pfeifer said the problems plaguing EMS departments in Pennsylvania have not gone away over the past year, but have only gotten worse. Chief among the problems is inflation, combined with stagnant reimbursements from insurance providers, making it more and more difficult each year for ambulance services to keep their heads above water financially.
“Municipal funding has helped our service,” Pfeifer said. “But nationally and statewide, reimbursement hasn’t changed and expenses have gotten higher.”
Starting in 2024, Forward Township voted to allocate all funds it receives from the local services tax to the three of the EMS providers serving the township — Quality, Harmony EMS and Butler Ambulance Service. Those revenues are expected to come out to $25,764 in 2025.
For 2024, Pfeifer says Quality EMS’s calls actually dropped slightly compared to the year before — a challenge, considering that the service is paid by the call. Quality EMS responded to 2,246 emergency calls last year, with 850 — more than a third — coming from Adams Township.
