Cooperstown Medical Transport

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by: Michael McGuire

Cooperstown Medical Transport never planned on being the primary commercial ambulance in Chenango County.

In fact, when the company started in 1980, founders Mark Zeek and Margaret McGown didn’t expect it would ever be much more than a small-time transport operation, taking patients in Cooperstown from one hospital to another.

Twenty-eight years later, however, Oneonta-based CMT is the top private EMS squad in Delaware and Otsego counties, and the majority of its 4,000 calls annually are for 911 emergencies. With its approved expansion into Chenango County nearly complete, CMT has gone from a small-time transporter to covering an area larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

“We never would have guessed,” said McGown, the company’s chief financial officer, looking back to when the company first started compared to where it is today.

With support from local fire officials and elected leaders in Chenango, CMT is hoping it can become part of the model for a modern, rural EMS system.

“We’re making CMT a three-county operation,” said Zeek, the company’s president, “and hopefully, part of a model, rural EMS operation that integrates commercial EMS with paid and volunteer services. And with all three working together, we’ll see if we can get the job done.”

What brought about the need for CMT? In Chenango County, it was the loss of Superior Ambulance, a Binghamton-based commercial EMS squad that closed its Norwich operation in October, citing a lack of profitable calls. Prior to exiting the area, Superior handled around 2,000 calls a year countywide and was the primary ambulance service for several outlying townships.

“We never really planned to come to Chenango County,” McGown said. “But when Superior left October 25th we were approached by officials in Chenango County about it. We thought quickly, but we thought hard, and decided to go for certification. It was all very sudden.”

Just three months and several regulatory approvals later, CMT is primed to begin taking calls full-time from its new station in Norwich (Superior’s old spot in Woods Corners), starting off with one 24-hour, 7-day-a-week ambulance and plans for another in the near future.

“We’ll have to see what the volume is,” Zeek said. “But we fairly positive about our future in Chenango County.”

The private squad has already been operating with a temporary Certificate of Need and handled 165 calls through November and December.

“The numbers are steadily growing,” McGown said.

Overall, CMT’s call numbers in Delaware and Otsego counties have also risen steadily since 1980. McGown said the growth can be attributed to two ongoing trends in rural societies: Aging populations that require more calls and weakening volunteer squads that struggle to answer them. Both have strained the traditional system of EMS, she said.

“People don’t realize what it’s like to be a volunteer EMS provider. It’s a tough job,” McGown said, citing a host of challenges volunteers face, including long hours away from home and stricter training demands, combined with less and less time to meet work and family commitments. “They deserve a lot of credit.”

On that note, Zeek and McGown see their services as supporting volunteers, not hurting them.

“We’re here to support the EMS system,” said McGown. “We’re not here because we want to take away from the EMS system. We’re going to support the volunteers and respond when they need us. We’re not here to push them out. It takes all the resources to provide sound EMS.”

As for its own resources, CMT is in the midst of hiring 14 more advanced and basic life support paramedics to staff its 24-hour Chenango County crew. The owners also expect to add a 16-hour ambulance soon. In the meantime, ambulances in CMT’s Sidney and Oneonta stations will offer support as needed and vice-versa.

“We’ll send ambulances wherever they’re needed,” McGown said. “That’s always how we’ve worked anyway.”

CMT still has logistical issues to work out with the Chenango County Emergency Dispatch Center and local volunteer squads, mainly figuring out how and when CMT will get calls – a vital component of its success or failure.

Acknowledging that Superior left claiming a lack of calls, McGown said she hasn’t figured out yet how many it will take to make CMT financially successful.

“There is a point where you have to have a certain amount of calls to be a viable operation,” McGown said. “It’s hard to tell what that is yet. We’re still learning as we go.”

January 10, CMT received local approval from the Susquehanna Regional EMS Council in Binghamton to operate in Chenango County. The state Department of Health is expected to ratify that approval in early February.

CMT’s Oneonta headquarters is actually in Davenport. It also has a station in Delhi and Cooperstown. Norwich will be its fourth location.

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