Special DELCO Emergency Services Authority Meeting
When Prospect Medical Holding went bankrupt and closed the Crozer Health system, many municipalities lost access not only to our acute care hospitals, but also to the majority of our Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Infrastructure. After Crozer shut its doors last spring, our county funded four Advanced Life Support ambulances as a stopgap measure. This gave our communities the time they needed to organize. Some of our neighbors have signed contracts with area EMS companies to provide services. We are exploring regionalization.
Specifically, we’re considering the development of a unique administrative/operational structure, Delco’s first multi-municipal Emergency Services Authority. An Authority structure ensures accountability to area residents through local board appointments while providing a stable, transparent structure for emergency services. Our intermunicipal working group includes representatives from six municipalities (Media, Nether Providence, Rose Valley, Rutledge, Swarthmore, and Upper Providence), as well as the Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association and the Media Fire Company. While a new concept in our region as a model for EMS, this framework has been successfully implemented by other regional EMS organizations across our commonwealth.
An Emergency Services Authority will improve how our municipalities organize EMS in three key ways.
- Stable, predictable funding: Many of our local EMS services are organized as independent non-profit organizations, beholden to voluntary donations and insurance billings to fund their organizations. This makes them vulnerable to year-over-year funding variability, which creates challenges for long-term strategic planning, staffing, and equipment investment. An authority will provide a reliable funding structure that allows the service to function responsibly and sustainably.
- Fairer cost distribution: The authority’s ability to set a fee with legally enforceable collection, rather than levy a tax, spreads the funding responsibility across a broader base of local property owners, including large land-owning nonprofit institutions that do not contribute through traditional property taxes. This approach spreads costs more evenly among users and keeps costs lower for residents and local businesses than a municipally operated, tax-funded service.
- Local control and accountability: The authority will be governed by a board with members appointed by the participating municipalities, ensuring continued public control through local elections. This local accountability stands in sharp contrast to the waning days of Prospect Medical Holdings’ control of Crozer, when decisions made far from our communities led to dangerously low staffing levels across our riverfront communities, forcing residents to rely on mutual aid from neighboring municipalities for basic emergency care, with disastrous results.
Our Multi-Municipal Emergency Services Authority Working Group is taking a disciplined, transparent approach to analyze the effectiveness of an authority, while intentionally pausing to gather community feedback throughout the process.
In this early phase, we are working with our legal counsel, who has extensive experience establishing similar authorities across Pennsylvania, to develop the authority’s legal structure, operating model, financial framework, and governance. A public information session is scheduled for April 30th at 7:00 PM at Strath Haven Middle School, where community members will be invited to learn about the proposal and share questions, concerns, and feedback.
Following the review of public input, we will hold a hearing regarding the authority’s Articles of Incorporation, wherein each municipality will decide on whether to formally join the authority. Finally, after the authority is created a public hearing will be held to establish fees. Once operational, the authority will begin providing Emergency Medical Services under the supervision of its governing board. Our hope is that, over time, additional municipalities will join as partners, strengthening service reliability and creating greater economies of scale.
Our working group is committed to rising to the challenge of providing sustainable emergency medical services. Recognizing that this problem is larger than any one community can solve alone, we choose to work together, reflecting our shared belief in the power of democratic collaboration to serve our common good.
In partnership,
The Multi-Municipal Emergency Services Authority Working Group
Media Borough
Nether Providence Township
Rose Valley Borough
Rutledge Borough
Swarthmore Borough
Upper Providence Township
Media Fire Company
Swarthmore Fire and Protective Association
