history

On Friday the 13th day of June, 1971, the Manheim Township Ambulance Association was born. On that date the Association received a certificate of incorporation as a non-profit organization and the call was put out for volunteers to staff it. During the year that followed the Association purchased a 1968 Cadillac Superior Ambulance including equipment for a total cost of $6900.00. Within six months a second ambulance was donated by the Nutley New Jersey First Aid Squad and Mr. and Mrs. J. Wesley Tillous, the family of a Manheim Township resident who had died unexpectantly earlier in the year.

A significant change over the years is the cost of equipment. While in 1971 a vehicle with equipment could be purchased for $6900.00, it can now cost well over $100,000.00 to purchase a vehicle and stock it with equipment and supplies required for State licensure. A licensure is renewed every three years after inspection by the State and in accordance with the Department of Health.

At first the Ambulances were housed in the Eden Fire Company and in Neffsville at a local business, then at the School District bus garage in Neffsville. Finally it was announced that the Ambulance Association would lease a piece of land from the Township to build a building to use as a headquarters. On October 1, 1972, the ground breaking ceremony took place.

The building has seen many changes over the years with additions being added to the original structure. It now currently maintains a Business Offices, Training Room, Lounge/Kitchen area, Board Room, Bunk Room, and restroom and shower facilities. It also has a four (4) bay garage area to house our vehicles and a maintenance room for supplies needed to maintain all vehicles in proper working condition. We try to provide most of our preventive maintenance services on sight and only transfer out for inspections and other major needs.

In the many years since the origination of the Association many changes have taken place. We have grown from a small volunteer Association into a large business comprised of mostly paid personnel. Over the years with an increasing demand on time and education, many persons did not have the time required to keep abreast of the new techniques and other education requirements to remain as a volunteer. It is not only time consuming but can be somewhat expensive for a person to donate of his time and money for a small amount of time they can offer in return. We retain a few volunteers and always welcome new personnel as they wish to volunteer their services.

Since most Association's have needed to acquire paid personnel, it is what most people are now looking into as a career move.

Manheim Township Ambulance Association currently has approximately twenty (20) full-time personnel and approximately twenty-eight (28) part-time personnel to staff our vehicles on a twenty-four hour basis. We have also added a satellite station at the Lancaster Airport. This has assisted us in a more efficient response to our coverage area. We also provide assistance to surrounding communities from this location.

In the original years the Association responded to Basic Life Support Emergency calls only. With the increasing call volume and complaints of double billing from the Hospital units, the Board of Directors were persuaded to venture into Advanced Life Support services for our community in the fall of 1998. This brought only one vehicle and crew to the scene of an emergency and reduced out-of-pocket expenses to the patient and their families. Since that time all the Hospital units have been factored out and are now being absorbed by other units. The only exception to this rule is that of Ephrata Community Hospital which maintains its commitment for this service to their community.

We have grown into not only an Emergency response system, but have needed to grow with the needs of our community. We currently handle all forms of Emergency service, as well as, routine Ambulance transports, Invalid Coach transports, Wheelchair Van transports, and Medical taxi transports. With the decline in payment and reimbursement form both Federal and State Agencies, a new trend was developed to provide a more cost effective mode of transportation. With these new trends, the costs have also shifted back to the patient. We also provide long distance non-emergency transports. We have traveled from the Canadian border to the gulf coast of Florida and out into the middle eastern states.

We currently operate five (5) ambulance type vehicles and two (2) vans which can be adapted for wheelchair or invalid coach transports. In addition we have a regular caravan which we utilize for medical taxi transports for those patients who need minimal assistance and can walk and climb into a vehicle on their own.

Our Board of Directors is currently made up of nine (9) individuals who meet on a bi-monthly basis to conduct business. The original make up was thirteen (13) members. This was deemed to be too expansive as most persons could not meet as frequently and issues were tabled for months at a time due to lack of a majority vote. The new structure has allowed for more streamline of business. The Executive portion of the Board of Directors are in constant contact with each other, as well as, the Executive Director of the Association and the business office. All billing for services is handled in-house and thus allows for more maintenance of concerns within the community. For information on our Board of Directors, please visit this portion of the site. This will let you know current delegates and their positions within the Association. You may even contact them through their email addresses which are listed.

A subscription program was instituted many years ago and remains in effect today. This allows for additional funding and assists in reducing the need for the Community to become tax based for support of Ambulance service. The Association maintains a yearly budget in excess of one million $1,000,000.00 per calendar year. This covers insurance, payroll, taxes, supplies, equipment, vehicles, training, etc.. The Association maintains the right to third party bill for all services rendered in order to maintain revenue to keep in operation. We have seen other services with a need to borrow money to pay their bills each year and we use these services to keep from this type of business practice. To date we have had good response from our Community in relationship to funding from both the private and business sectors.

Please visit our other portions of our website for additional information. You may contact us at anytime via email and/or telephone. We encourage anyone in our Community to stop by our building and visit us at anytime. We would be more than happy to take you on a tour of our facility and answer any questions you might have.