EMS in Princess Anne will transfer to county.

 

Princess Anne Vol. Fire Company

Dear Princess Anne Community,

     Since 1948, the Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Company has provided Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to the citizens of Somerset County. In 2024. Our 17 career employees ran over 3,300+ EMS calls that were transported and delivered to Tidal Health PRMC in Salisbury, Tidal Health-McCready in Crisfield, or Atlantic General in Berlin. Those were full transports from a physical 911 address to a health care facility and not good intent (non-transport) calls. With Medicare and Medicaid as the majority of the funding for these transports ran anywhere from $20 to $170 for the full transport. A typical ALS call should be billed at $1000+ whereas we may see only $20-$170 of that transport. Yes, you read that correctly. Now do that 3,000 more times at that rate. When someone calls us for a nosebleed, we cannot say no we have a duty to serve and transport. EMS supplies, Payroll, workman’s compensation, taxes, and benefits have all grown dramatically in our station. We have provided the citizens a 2-crew run station with 2 paramedics, and 2 EMTs 24/7 for the past 10+ years. We have attempted multiple talks with our County commissioners asking for more funding to support our growing EMS calls in the County and not getting adequate funding from billing. 

     With that being said, as of July 1, 2025, the Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Company will no longer be providing EMS service to the county. The Board of Directors have met with the Somerset County Commissioners in a closed meeting and they will be taking over Ems services in our First Due area. This decision was not made lightly but as a business, we cannot continue to run EMS without adequate funding to support our employees. We will work hand in hand with the county as this EMS service is being transferred over to them. No lack of EMS service will happen during this time. We will continue to answer calls until the commissioners are ready with their county-run EMS system. Our County Commissioners have agreed to talk to our current employees and offer them a package deal in the coming weeks.