East Windsor Ambulance Association, Inc.
2nd Quarter, 2005

In just 10 years, the East Windsor Ambulance Association, Inc. has accomplished many of our goals and now provides East Windsor with a high quality Advanced Life Support Paramedic Service.

Our most current goals include;

The East Windsor Ambulance Association, Inc. continues to take steps towards meeting many of these goals. Beginning in April 2005, the association opened a second facility on Emily Road in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor. This facility has been long overdue. The large geographical area of East Windsor makes one facility impractical. Warehouse Point has enjoyed low response times since we became a paid 24 hours service. We feel the residents in Broad Brook deserve the same level of service. At this time this is rental space and we anticipate this will prove worthy of building a permanent facility.

Residents in Broad Brook should immediately recognize shorter wait times from the initiation of the 911 notification to the time that we arrive to your home.

The East Windsor Ambulance Association, Inc. has also placed continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) units in service this year. This is an advanced level skill that minimizes the need for congestive heart failure patients to be placed on breathing tube respirators. This will help to minimize hospital stays for these patients and provide a better patient outcome.

We anticipate the purchase of additional cardiac monitors, automatic respiratory ventilators, automated CPR devices, and patient care record automation as funding becomes available.

This year, the association financed the purchase of a new van ambulance. Our second ambulance has high mileage and frequent repairs were necessary.  The association, in October, appealed to both the Board of Selectman and Board of Finance the serious immediate need for a new ambulance.  We continued to deliberate through a committee what level of financial funding the town should make to the emergency medical service. 

The association was then without any other options and it was then necessary to purchase a new ambulance without the town’s assistance using our limited operating revenue. Typically, municipalities in our area fully fund the replacement of ambulances for their ambulance corps.

Unfortunately, because of our limited revenue, we were forced to purchase a van ambulance which is a much smaller ambulance with limited space and little room for specialized equipment. Its carrying capacity is only one patient comfortably instead of two. And it is very claustrophobic to many patients. The purchase cost is $40,000 less than that of a modular ambulance that we prefer to purchase. These ambulances are typically purchased by commercial ambulance companies that place little emphasis on patient comfort or optimum medical care.

In the next few years, we anticipate the need for an additional ambulance. This will provide for an ambulance during peak call periods and a replacement during periods of maintenance. We will continue to encourage town leaders to fund the replacement of our ambulances on a five year schedule.

Becoming a more recognized town agency is also important to our association. While we have been provided some funding by the Town of East Windsor, there are always reservations as to the level of commitment the town should commit its resources.

Becoming a town agency will secure the associations future, provide for improved compensation for our employees including employee benefits, and provide needed administrative staff funding for this critical emergency service. The Town of Enfield has just created a town agency to accomplish this function.

The Town Hall Annex Ambulance location in Warehouse Point also requires replacement. This facility has provided a location for our staff and the ambulances but has no training or meeting space, very little storage, limited offices, and poor sleeping and cooking conditions. A new facility in Warehouse Point should be considered in the very near future.

The East Windsor Ambulance Association, Inc. continues to improve the emergency medical services that we provide our residents. It is important that you give us feedback as to how we are doing. Please write to us at P.O. Box 188, East Windsor, CT 06088 or email me at chiefclynch@ewambulance.org with your comments and or suggestions. Please visit our web page at www.ewambulance.org