The Easton Emergency Medical Service is now authorized to pay for additional staff to ensure full coverage during all shifts.
First Selectman David Bindleglass empowered EMS Captain Jonathon Arnold to fill any coverage gaps with additional personnel when needed. EMS currently provides 24-hour coverage Monday through Friday with paid and volunteer staff. Saturdays and Sundays are covered by volunteers. If there are any gaps in coverage during the weekend days, Arnold now has the authority to hire paid EMTs on a per diem basis to cover a shift.
The decision follows concerns raised on social media and during public meetings about EMS response times. In October, the Easton Volunteer Fire Company, the Executive Board of the Easton Volunteer Fire Company, the Chiefs and Officers of the Easton Fire Department and Local 1426 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, circulated a letter critical of the EMS response times. Others claimed the town was overly reliant on both mutual aid from neighboring towns and EMTs responding from out-of-town homes, lengthening response times. And an Easton couple also voiced concerns about the delayed EMS response to a call about their son who has diabetes.
“We are responding to concerns that have been raised, and I’ve authorized the chief to pay people to fill the holes in coverage,” said Bindelglass.
To address misinformation on social media and ease concerns, Bindelglass invited Vaughan Dumas, executive director of the Southwestern Regional Communications Center (SWRCC), to present data on Easton’s ambulance response times at the Dec. 5 Board of Selectmen meeting. SWRCC is part of Connecticut’s Coordinated Medical Emergency Direction (CMED) radio network that provides dispatch services, coordinates mutual aid and facilitates communication between first responders and hospitals.
According to Dumas, EMS responded to 87.4% of its own calls from Nov. 1, 2023 to Nov. 1, 2024 in Easton, which is above the state average. Easton ambulances on average made it to the scene within 6.84 minutes for those calls, quicker than the state’s 2022 average of 8.84 minutes, the most recent available data, according to Dumas.
Dumas’ data also provided details about Easton’s reliance on mutual aid. From Jan. 1 to March 31, 2024, Easton received mutual aid from surrounding towns 12 times, eight times from Trumbull EMS, three times from AMR, and one time from Nelson. AMR and Nelson are private ambulance services. Easton provided mutual aid to surrounding towns 16 times during that same period. Dumas did not give the average response time for mutual aid to arrive in Easton, but said the response time by Easton to outside calls was 15.4 minutes.
“Mutual aid is everywhere,” Dumas stated during the meeting. “Everybody relies on it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little town like Easton or a big city like Bridgeport.”
Easton EMS, like many emergency medical services throughout the state, faces staffing challenges, which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic and aftermath. To address the situation, Easton EMS partnered earlier this year with Sacred Heart University, allowing student EMTs to live in their building free of charge in exchange for covering shifts and improving response times. (The Easton Courier is published in partnership with Sacred Heart University’s School of Communication, Media & the Arts.) Similar programs have been implemented elsewhere around the country to meet staffing needs.
Arnold said he is glad Bindelglass gave him a safety net to hire additional staff and characterized it as an important stage in the service’s continued growth. Easton EMS is poised to renovate its current building, which is more than 100 years old and lacks sufficient garage and office space, living quarters for staff and adequate space for growth.
“It’s just part of the evolution of EMS,” said Arnold. “This is what the public wants, and we are going to provide it for them.”
Jim and Genevieve Waterbury have also been vocal about improving EMS coverage after it took over an hour for an ambulance to transport their son, who has diabetes, to Bridgeport Hospital in September.
“I am confident and hopeful that Chief Arnold will utilize the additional resources provided to him and the Easton EMS to adequately staff the Easton EMS with on site, in-house coverage during those times where in-house coverage has been lacking,” said Jim Waterbury. “He has heard the concerns and pleas from Easton citizens as well as the Board of Selectmen regarding this issue, so I’m confident and hopeful that he’ll use the additional resources to address the problem immediately.”
Selectman Kristi Sogofsky welcomed the additional funding made available to provide more staffed coverage for the town’s EMS, but said it’s unfortunate that it took several months to get to this point.
“I do not see this as a final solution but as a step in the right direction to address some operational concerns at EMS,” said Sogofsky. “Ultimately, the town deserves to have its EMS building manned by paid staff or volunteers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I look forward to continued discussions about ways to improve public safety in the community.”
Selectman Nicholas D’Addario said he also welcomed the additional funding for EMS.
“We heard the concerns of the public and they are being addressed,” said D’Addario. “We need to provide the best care possible for Easton residents.”
The complete recording of the Dec. 5 Board of Selectmen meeting with Vaughan Dumas’s presentation can be accessed below.
