Partnership forms for ambulance bay

FISHERS (WISH) - A new public-private partnership aims to improve emergency service in Fishers.

IU Health Saxony Hospital will now house paramedics from the Fishers Fire Department. 

Town leaders and officials from the hospital group officially unveiled the new program Wednesday.

It includes a new bay for an ambulance and sleeping quarters for the EMS workers who use it.   

Rob Demlow, one of the paramedics who will use the new facility, said, “The hospital is treating us well.  We’re hoping to have two people stationed at this living quarters. We'll have a kitchen, bathroom and showers. (And a) locker room. We'll be able to run it just like a normal firehouse."
  
The hope is to provide fast care for people in an area that currently does not have its own fire station.
 
Town leaders say it would cost about $3 million to build a new fire station to serve the northeast side of Fishers, and they anticipate doing that at some point as the area grows. But for now, they say the new partnership will serve an important role.

"Having emergency personnel housed at IU Health Saxony increases the efficiency of service delivery to the exit 210 area,” Town Council President John Weingardt said in response to the announcement.

Even though the ambulance and crew will work out of IU Health Saxony, town leaders say patients can always decide which hospital the ambulance will take them.  St. Vincent Health, for example, has a health care facility not far from the Saxony campus.