Jeannette becomes 1st municipality to provide direct support to Mutual Aid EMS

Jeannette became the first municipality to provide direct financial support to Mutual Aid EMS, a move ambulance officials hope will spread.

Council on Thursday approved a proposal from Mutual Aid to be the city’s ambulance provider for the rest of 2023 in exchange for $1,000 monthly.

“Getting assistance from the community is imperative, hopefully others will follow,” said Brian Maloney, a regional director with the Ambulance Association of PA and operations director at Plum EMS.

In the 10 days since Jeannette EMS abruptly shut its doors on July 3, Greensburg-based Mutual Aid has responded to 52 calls, according to chief operations officer Ken Bacha. Mutual Aid and Penn Township Ambulance split calls during that 10-day period until city council selected a provider Thursday.

The surprise closure sent council members scrambling to get an interim plan in place.

Jeannette EMS ran ambulances for 63 years before it closed. Director of Operations Randy Highlands pointed to insufficient funding and low insurance reimbursement rates as reasons for the closure. The city provided it with the same $1,000 monthly that Mutual Aid is now receiving.

Councilwoman Michelle Langdon thanked Councilwoman Robin Mozley and Fire Chief Bill Frye for jumping into action to make sure residents weren’t without ambulance service after learning about the closure hours before it went into effect.

“They did a really great job,” Langdon said. “They kept their heads and moved forward and did what they had to do.”

Antoniak thanked both Mutual Aid and Penn Township Ambulance for stepping up to the plate.

Bacha said Mutual Aid officials will re-evaluate its current locations to determine if it makes sense for an ambulance base to be located in Jeannette. Currently, the closest station is in Adamsburg, but an ambulance is often on standby at Allegheny Health Network’s Hempfield neighborhood hospital, just over the border with the city.

He said the city averages five calls daily and 1,800 annually. The agreement allowed for several months of breathing room and it’ll be revisited closer to the end of the year.

Mutual Aid serves 33 municipalities, including Jeannette — 27 in Westmoreland County and five in Fayette.

The Westmoreland County Ambulance and Rescue Association recently sent letters to most Westmoreland municipalities suggesting they get in touch with their ambulance services, which are facing a funding crisis locally and statewide.

Maloney praised Jeannette for agreeing to provide financial support to Mutual Aid, saying such support is “not common enough.”

“What they did here, is they kind of set that bar,” he said. “Hopefully, people will start to see what happened in Jeannette could happen to anybody.”