1-13-2025 4:49am

Save Lives: Boyertown Community Ambulance Service Encourages Residents to Join

Lesley Misko Editor

Editor's Note: This article was published last season. We are re-running it to inspire our readers to renew their memberships--or begin one--with the Boyertown Community Ambulance Service--one of the area's most valuable services.

by Lesley Misko

Last year, the Boyertown area community stepped up! Increased purchases of annual ambulance subscriptions by area families and businesses, increased monetary donations from civic groups, and increased contributions from the municipalities it serves (Borough of Boyertown, Colebrookdale and Earl Townships), decreased the Boyertown Community Ambulance Service’s (BCAS) longstanding financial challenges.

Now, BCAS is asking the community to continue its support, especially by renewing and once again purchasing annual ambulance subscriptions. BCAS is hoping that those who did not subscribe in previous years, will subscribe now.

Melanie Roth, BCAS Board president, feels “cautiously hopeful that community members and municipalities will continue to recognize the need for BCAS to be ready to provide the best possible services with the most current equipment and best trained staff.” Roth, and Jim Boyer, Boyertown Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Chief, emphasize that the “annual subscriptions are a major part of the solution” to covering the ambulance service’s annual expenses.

An annual ambulance subscription – $105 per individual; $130 per family; $100-$500 per business, depending on the number of employees— is a bargain, Roth and Boyer point out.

“People think that their Medicare or other health insurance pays the cost when an ambulance is needed,” explains Roth. “But in reality, your insurance pays only $400- $500 of the estimated $800- $1,500 expense. The balance is then billed to the patient. However, if the patient has purchased an ambulance subscription, s/he is not billed for that difference.”

Although saving money is always a good outcome, nothing can equal the value of saving a life. In her seventh year on the BCAS Board, Roth describes herself as “passionate” about further building the capacity of the community’s lifesaving services. “An ambulance makes the difference between life and death. I want the community to understand the importance and need and to support it,” she says.

Boyer has no shortage of evidence to prove Roth’s point. “One of the things we offer to business subscribers is a discount on workplace lifesaving and safety training” he explains. The goal is to enable ordinary people to utilize emergency protocols before an ambulance arrives, to increase someone’s likelihood of survival.

Boyer shares, “Shortly after we completed a recent CPR training for a local business, an employee of that business went into cardiac arrest. Because of that training, people knew what to do.” CPR was initiated; first responders arrived; AED (Automated External Defibrillator) was administered to restore the victim’s heart rhythm, and Boyer, along with police, fire, and EMS personnel were able to successfully revive him before transporting him to the hospital.

Noting the happy ending, Boyer emphasizes, “The patient survived… and it was because his coworkers just had this training.” He concludes, a bit choked up, “The system worked. There were tears there that day. People think they won’t ever have to use what they are being taught. We can’t save everyone’s life, but that day, everything worked. The training kept someone alive until the ambulance arrived.”

Jim Boyer, Chief, and Melanie Roth, Board President, along with the rest of the board, work together to figure out ways to provide the best services at the most affordable costs.

To help educate the community about its life-saving work, BCAS sends its ambulances and crews to wellness council health fairs and other large community events. “The perception is that we’re ambulance drivers,” says Boyer, but the reality today is so much more. “An ambulance is like an emergency room on wheels. The more people we can get trained and aware of what we do, the better off the community will be. People take their training with them out into the community.”

Boyer and Roth are hoping everyone will do their part: take advantage of the services BCAS provides in the community and above all, purchase a 2024 subscription now. Residents of the area served by BCAS should have received subscription information in the mail, but you can also click here to purchase an annual ambulance subscription or click here to make an online contribution to BCAS.

“No one wakes up in the morning planning to call an ambulance, Boyer says. “You just never know when an emergency might arise.”