Expert warns Wethersfield plan would rely heavily on mutual aid, cites operational risks; favors Aetna

Mister Gunderson, an EMS system designer and expert witness, told an administrative hearing on Jan. 23 that the Weathersfield Emergency Medical Services Association (WEMSA) plan would rely on mutual aid for roughly a third of calls and raised doubts about WEMSA’s staffing, supervision and quality-management arrangements.

The expert said the hearing record includes an 11-month data exhibit showing Aetna responding alone on 836 of 2,361 calls—“roughly a third of the time,” he said—which he interpreted as evidence that WEMSA units were unavailable on those occasions. Gunderson also testified that Southbury, offered in the record as a comparison, differs in ways that reduce its comparability: Southbury fields three ambulances and has fewer major roadways, he said, and it requested mutual aid far less often.

Gunderson told the hearing the core operational concerns were mutual-aid reliability, paramedic staffing and supervision, and quality management. He said WEMSA’s plan contemplates two staffed ambulances and relies on mutual-aid agreements with adjacent communities that are mostly basic-life-support providers with subcontracted ALS…