SERINO ANNOUNCES HISTORIC $2 MILLION INVESTMENTIN EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES IN 2025 BUDGET

Ahead of the release of the 2025 Executive Budget, Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino has announced a historic $2 million investment in Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Key highlights of the funding include the launch of supplemental ambulance coverage, a public awareness campaign, and initiatives to address the workforce shortage.

“Emergency Medical Services are a vital lifeline for our residents, and this significant investment ensures we can meet the growing needs of our community,” said Dutchess County Executive Sue Serino. “This funding will not only improve EMS response times but also reduce pressure on mutual aid services, ensuring each community has the coverage it needs.”

 In 2025, Dutchess County will partner with municipalities to launch a supplemental ambulance coverage program, contracting with commercial providers to enhance EMS response and reliability.  This will serve as a temporary measure while long-term solutions to the EMS challenges are developed.  It will diversify the EMS vendors operating within the county, keeping costs competitive to potentially lower costs for municipalities and improving service reliability.  The supplemental coverage will reduce the overuse of mutual aid services, keeping community resources within each community and improving the overall EMS system for residents.

The $2 million investment will also support other key efforts, including:

Public Awareness Campaign: To better inform the public about EMS services, the County will create a social media campaign aimed at educating residents on when to call 911 and when other medical options may be more appropriate. The goal is to ensure the public understands the critical and essential role of EMS services in Dutchess County and how they can best utilize them.

Workforce Development: Dutchess County is actively working on recruitment efforts to address the workforce shortage and draw more job seekers into this crucial field. The County is also working to support those who are currently in the field, implementing first responder resiliency trainings, including a peer-to-peer support network for the mental and emotional well-being of first responders.

County Executive Serino first outlined the County’s multi-prong approach to addressing the EMS crisis in her State of the County Address in March and since then, has taken significant steps to find solutions to those challenges. Over the past few months, together with the Department of Emergency Response, she has met with supervisors and mayors and other representatives from every municipality in Dutchess County to discuss the historical and current challenges facing EMS, reviewing data for their specific regions that is critical to informing strategic solutions.  The discussions are ongoing with additional meetings being coordinated, including meetings with fire chiefs.

A bipartisan coalition of municipal leaders also joined County Executive Serino in advocating for the passage of the New York State Association of Counties ‘Rescue EMS’ legislative package. Read the letter here. That advocacy led to the successful passage of legislation that allows the ability for EMS providers to bill for ‘treatment in place’ and to transport patients to alternative destinations, such as the Dutchess County Stabilization Center, by ambulance.  The Governor recently signed this legislation into law, an important step toward expanding EMS care and improving service delivery.

In partnership with the Dutchess County Legislature, Serino also launched a new ‘Fly-Car’ Grant Program, to provide life-saving equipment to fire departments for their ‘fly car’ vehicles in exchange for unified EMS recruitment messaging to be decaled on these highly visible vehicles. All Dutchess County fire departments, ambulance corps and rescue squads were eligible for awards of up to $20,000 for equipment that would help EMS first responders be as effective as possible on scene. Multiple departments took advantage of this opportunity to submit applications, which are currently being reviewed and award announcements will be forthcoming in the coming weeks.

County Executive Serino will present her 2025 Executive Budget in the Dutchess County Legislature Chambers on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, at 3 PM.  The County Executive’s Budget Address can be viewed live on the County’s website, dutchessny.gov/budget2025.   Serino will also host will host a countywide tele-town hall forum at 6:30 PM that evening when residents will have the opportunity to participate in a live conversation about the proposed budget, learn key details, ask questions and share feedback.