Old Tappan debates ambulance options: hire EMTs, per-diem staffing, or a hospital contract

Old Tappan council members spent an extended portion of the meeting evaluating competing approaches for ensuring daytime ambulance coverage: (1) a mutual-aid/prioritization agreement offered by Hackensack University Medical Center at no direct cost, (2) a Holy Name proposal to provide coverage 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday for roughly $20,000 per year, and (3) a proposal from the volunteer ambulance corps to hire full-time or per-diem EMTs to guarantee local coverage.

Jesse Hopper, chief of the volunteer ambulance corps, presented the corps' case in depth, arguing that hiring EMTs (full-time or per-diem) would ensure reliable local response without generating bills for residents. "I feel the benefits of hiring our own EMTs to serve Ultapan outweigh the price concerns," Hopper said when explaining the corps' preference for locally funded staffing. He said contracted hospital ambulances can respond but may not be located in town when a call comes in and that when hospital crews respond residents can be billed if the ambulance is out-of-network.

Council members pressed on cost and practical details. Members asked for clarification on the scope of mutual-aid agreements, the duration and terms of existing leases for cell-tower revenue that could offset costs, and whether neighboring towns (notably Rivervale) would join a multi-town staffing model to reduce per-town expense. Hopper supplied operational data: for February the volunteer corps was dispatched 49 times, answered 38 calls overall, and responded to 22 of 28 in-town dispatches (roughly a 77% overall response rate and 78% in-town response rate for the month). Hopper offered to pull additional response-time data on request.

Council members discussed per-diem staffing, overtime constraints for volunteers who might also be employees, and the potential morale effects of paid hospital crews displacing volunteers. Some council members suggested exploring a three-town partnership to reduce costs; others recommended staff and the chief obtain comparator information from Hillsdale and other towns that use per-diem or hospital contracts.

The council did not adopt a final plan; members requested additional analysis of costs, call volumes, mutual-aid arrangements in neighboring towns, and response-time statistics. The ambulance corps agreed to provide requested call and response-time data and to reach out to neighboring chiefs and contracted providers for comparative information. The council directed staff to share the proposals and to reconvene the discussion at a future meeting.