Chester scores ambulance coverage, narrowly avoids lengthy lapse in emergency care

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The city of Chester will avoid a long-term lapse in emergency medical services.

Local officials reached an agreement Friday with Lansdale-based VMSC Emergency Medical Services to sustain coverage. VMSC will provide three basic life support ambulances, an advanced life support chase car and access to a communications center.

The partnership between the city and the nonprofit EMS organization comes as Crozer Health faces an imminent closure within days. Chester relied on Delaware County’s largest hospital system for EMS coverage. The emergency room at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in nearby Upland stopped accepting ambulances Wednesday.

Chester is already a health care desert. Riddle Hospital in Media and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby are the closest emergency rooms. The nearest high-level trauma centers are Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia and Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood, meaning longer and potentially deadlier transport times for Chester residents.

“This agreement with VMSC came just in time, is a testament to the commitment and urgency shared by all involved,” Mayor Stefan Roots said in a statement, thanking Delaware County Council for helping to secure the partnership.

Other local municipalities, who also relied on Crozer, are rushing to find solutions. Upper Darby ditched Crozer for Drexel Hill-based STAT Medical Transport.

In a statement, city officials said that VMSC personnel will likely be located at one of the Chester Fire Department’s fire stations “to foster collaboration, expedite response times, and enhance community coverage.”

“VMSC has been a trusted provider of emergency medical services in the region since 1933. To the people of Chester — welcome to the VMSC EMS family,” VMSC CEO Shane Wheeler said in the statement. “As a nonprofit EMS agency with a century of service throughout Delaware Valley, we’re honored to bring you into a network of communities united by care, commitment, and compassion.”

The agency is targeting a response time of under eight minutes for life-threatening emergencies. The city hopes to deploy VMSC ambulances starting May 2.