Officials will announce today that Mercy Flight -- which currently is not in the ground ambulance business -- is the preferred choice of the Genesee County Ambulance Task Force to take over ambulance service for the county.
In a press released obtained by The Batavian prior to its official release to the media, officials state:
The Task Force recommends to local governments and fire districts Mercy Flight, Inc. as the preferred vendor for ambulance services in Genesee County. Mercy Flight, Inc. will operate three Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances, one Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulance and a Paramedic Fly Car 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They will maintain two additional ambulances in reserve status. Their operation will be based in Batavia and will provide services to all municipal jurisdictions and fire districts in Genesee County.
The Task Force will continue to assist all parties involved with the conversion process to assure a relatively seamless transition when the city of Batavia ends ambulance service on Aug. 31.
A person associated with the Batavia ambulance service also e-mailed us about the Mercy Flight selection and said, "Hopefully it will be a good fit. We just have to wait for the fine details before we throw a party."
Other companies considered in the request-for-proposal process were Monroe Ambulance, Rural Metro Medical Services and TLC Emergency Medical Services, Inc..
UPDATE: From Mercy Flight's "About Us" page:
Mercy Flight WNY is an independent, not-for-profit provider of emergency air medical transport. We ensure rapid, safe and cost effective delivery of expert emergency response teams. Established in 1981, Mercy Flight has flown more than 17,000 patient missions over the last 27 years. We currently own 5 helicopters and have crews ready to respond 24 hours a day, 7 days a week out of bases in Buffalo, Batavia and Olean.
UPDATE 10:25 a.m.: Four-hours later, the Daily has its story up, but has an important clarification:
“This is not going to be a county service,” he said (Assistant County Manager Frank Ciaccia). “This will be up to each of the individual towns, and the city of Batavia, to contract separately with Mercy Flight for their ambulance services.”
Mercy Flight will still need to acquire a certificate of need from the State Health Department, he said. That’s a certificate of approval granted by a state agency to a health care provider, deeming that a service or facility is warranted.
