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Mercy Flight intends to buy city ambulances; city crews can apply for jobs

By Howard B. Owens

Mercy Flight, which won the nod of the Genesee County Ambulance Task Force, intends to buy the existing city ambulances, according to Vice President and CFO Margie Ferrentino.

City ambulance staff will also be given an opportunity to work for the new service. They will have to go through a pre-employment screening process, but Ferrentino indicated it's Mercy Flight's preference to retain existing staff when possible.

Ferrentino also said this morning that even though the not-for-profit Mercy Flight has not operated street ambulance services before, the leadership and staff of Mercy Flight has hundreds of years of cumulative experience in the ambulance business.

The organization is planning to base two ambulances on North Street and one at the airport.

Here is a four-minute audio interview with Ferrentino.

Ferrentino also supplied two documents outlining the experience of CEO Douglas H. Baker and the rest of the senior staff.

UPDATE: Here's a three-minute audio interview with CEO Doug Baker. Baker says how excited Mercy Flight is to get the opportunity to serve Genesee County with ground ambulance service and notes that there will be local residents on the board of directors. Current Batavia ambulance personnel are their first choice to join the new service. "We hope that all of them will come on board," Baker said.

UPDATE II: Tim Yaeger, coordinator for Emergency Management Services, and head of the task force discusses the Mercy Flight selection in this audio interview. He said he's happy the long process has come to an end. He said Mercy Flight came out on top because the organization clearly understands Genesee County, with its unique needs due to having an urban area and very rural areas.

Andrew Erbell

Huh, there's a surprise - not. Pretty sure I posted several months ago that's what would be the most likely scenario from whomever took over the service.

May 22, 2009, 10:10am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Karen, I think it's pretty clear both from my summary and the audio interview that Mercy Flight is planning to retain existing staff. OF COURSE they need to go through some sort of pre-job screening, if nothing else liability for a job like this would pretty much require any employee joining the payroll for the first time would need to be fairly vetted, and maybe not everybody will want to work for the new service for their own personal reasons. There's no realistic way Mercy Flight can guarantee employment to anyone.

May 22, 2009, 10:26am Permalink
Bea McManis

Posted by Howard Owens about 30 minutes ago
There's no realistic way Mercy Flight can guarantee employment to anyone.

I guess we are hoping that those most familiar with the area and those most familiar with the people they serve would be first on the list of possible employees.
We would expect that they would go through the 'new hire' process.
Mercy Flight considering them first would add a comfort level to what has been an uncomfortable situation for many.

May 22, 2009, 11:00am Permalink
Howard B. Owens

Bea, familiarity with the area and the equipment is top of the list of why Mercy Flight hopes to retain as many, if not all, of the employees. Listen to both interviews.

May 22, 2009, 12:07pm Permalink
Dave Meyer

This is a perfect fit and what I was hoping for when the potential players were announced. I wish all the best to Mercy Flight and I believe that Genesee County residents won't even notice a blip in the quality of the service provided.
Congratulations to all involved in arriving at this decision.

And...Karen....get over it. It's DONE! If you're smelling something, maybe take a look closer around yourself rather than pointing at City Hall. It might be some of that manure you've been spreading.

If you want to blame someone at City Hall, take a look at the previous administration that gave away the farm with that ridiculous union contract with it's "minimum staffing" requirements. THAT'S why we no longer have a city ambulance service. Nothing more...nothing less. It sucks that the city didn't have a competent negotiator at that time because now the city is burdened with that for at least 2 more years.

May 22, 2009, 2:49pm Permalink
Gabor Deutsch

I know a mercy flight employee that actually responds to calls and helps transport in one of their helicopters. I definately believe that they will employ anyone from this area first providing that the have the proper qualifications of a very high standard and are willing to accept the wage being offered. Maybe every emt wont get a job but mercy flight is not a come and go service. If ur interested in this i believe mercy flight has a website.

May 22, 2009, 2:26pm Permalink
william tapp

i real like the fact that thay may hire out city emts, that a plus, i know some of them and thy are great people.
I have all so used the service 2 or 3 times and thy were so good to me and knew what that were doing.
outer then that i don't know all the facts.but it does sound good.

May 22, 2009, 3:57pm Permalink

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