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Date: 2/22/2021
HUNTINGTON – The Hilltown Community Ambulance Association (HCAA) has big ideas for the future, according to Service Director Angela Mulkerin and Assistant Service Director Loretta Stober.
Last year, HCAA bought the building at One Bromley Road they have been leasing from the town of Huntington for $50,000. Mulkerin said the town put out a request for proposals on the former Verizon garage, and no one else bid. Requirements of the bid said that it needed to be used for a public purpose such as providing ambulance coverage to the town, according to Mulkerin, and the sale closed in August.
“It’s a big relief having this sort of security where we haven’t had it before. The town has been great to us. There was never a threat of losing the building, but knowing we have it is fantastic,” said Mulkerin, who joined HCAA in 2014 as community liaison and paramedic and became director in 2016. Stober, also a paramedic, has been with HCAA since 2010.
Mulkerin said they were able to pay cash for the purchase, and didn’t have to take out any financing. “We did pretty well with our annual subscription program. People kept us in mind,” she said. HCAA serves the towns of Blandford, Chester, Huntington, Montgomery, Russell and Worthington.
“We owe a lot to people sending in donations. The subscription program this summer was unbelievable. It allowed us to purchase the building at a very small cost compared to what everything else is going to cost,” added Stober.
Their plans include building an addition at headquarters on One Bromley Road into the parking lot area. “The space [now] very much suits two ambulances, but it’s not fantastic for training, and there is no decontamination area, and no showers,” Mulkerin said, adding, “These are things the organization and employees need and should have. There is no time that we would have felt more secure with a decontamination area than in the last nine months.”
HCAA is working with architect Curtis Edgin of Caolo & Bieniek Associates of Chicopee. They have a design they’ve approved, and a rough cost estimate for construction at $500,000 to $700,000.
“I know it sounds like we’re dreaming big. We need a dream and we need a goal. We’re asking for baseline things we need to run an ambulance business and to keep our crews safe,” Stober said.
While their dreams are big, their plates are full right now due to the pandemic.
“We sure have learned to work together in unusual and more strenuous ways,” said Stober, who works full-time on the ambulance. She said they had to learn a new way to do business and to approach patients. “Safety first for the crew, patients and families.”
Crews now stand at the door of a residence to make their first assessment from a distance, asking new questions, such as whether anyone has had flu-like symptoms, a fever or cough. Stober said the baseline personal protective equipment (PPE) on every single call is goggles, a mask and gloves. If someone is thought to be COVID positive, they will put on a full Tyvek suit. “Unusual conditions being geared like that,” Stober said.
“It’s also tough for bedside manner,” Mulkerin added. “It’s hard to make eye contact, show someone a smile, make sure you’re even heard. It’s tough to connect.”
Mulkerin said HCAA has responded to COVID-19 positive patients, but it’s hard to keep complete track of how many, because the notification process is not perfect. “Not to blame any agency or department. We don’t have confirmed numbers for positive patients. 261 patients from February through the end of 2020 are suspected COVID patients,” she said.
Mulkerin said initially their call volume dropped considerably from February to May, then it started to pick up, and by end of the year, they had the same call volumes as before. By the end of 2020, the total call volume for the year was 730, an increase of 28 over 2019.
She said during the slower months, the patients were much more critical.
“In the first four months, we were reading new guidelines and working them into internal protocols. There were a lot of changes initially, but we have not had to make many changes since May or June,” Mulkerin said.
Stober said initially they were finding PPE, gloves and cleaning supplies in short supply. “We have to disinfect the ambulance from the ceiling down, including the equipment and monitor. We’re very diligent in making sure the ambulance is decontaminated on every call,” she said.
Mulkerin said they did not have any of their employees test positive, but they did lose 17 days from putting employees on quarantine due to exposure. “They’ve done really, really well. We’re a small organization – it would take three days for someone who tests positive to come in contact with everyone else who works here.”
Mulkerin said HCAA offered to support a regional vaccination site in the hilltowns, but it was absorbed into the Northampton plan. The staff received their vaccinations as first responders in January.
As for beginning the process of securing funding for the new building, Mulkerin said they just “keep on waiting for things to slow down.” She said right now they have dedicated vehicle replacement funds, and going forward, will probably allocate subscription funds towards financing the building.
“There are savings enough to make me feel very comfortable about running this business for some time,” she said, adding that in the past they’ve run the service without two reliable ambulances, and without hot water. “We like financial stability.”
The annual board meeting is coming up, which will include budget discussions and strategy on where and how to find partners.
“We definitely have some hard-working, dedicated, ready-at-the-moment board members. Especially this year, it’s been a big job,” Mulkerin said. She said board members don’t have to be able to work on the ambulance. They need people to help fundraise, sell tickets, manage events, who are tied to their community and can be ambassadors to their community. She said right now the board is split evenly between those who are EMT or first responder-oriented and community representatives.
Stober said now they especially need volunteers and board members to help them with the grant process. “[People] who are not afraid of the computer, to pick up the phone, call congresspeople and senators and tell them what we have up here,” she said.
Anyone interested in getting involved may contact Mulkerin at angelamulkerin@hilltownambulance.org or by phone at 667-3277.
“Everyone has spent this year in survival mode. We still have a lot of goals with training, recruitment and retention, which can happen without the new building, but would be much easier with the new building,” Mulkerin said. In the new building there will be a space allocated for staff training and for the HCAA Academy, which offers CPR instruction for all levels of providers and lay people through the American Heart Association.
“We are so excited, we just need to figure out how to get from A to Z. Angela is a real force. She gets things done and runs the business, too. She’s very, very effective,” Stober said.
Mulkerin said it will be a tough hurdle but sounded confident they would get there. “It’s been a helluva year for everyone,” she said.