The City of Warren has served notice that it will stop responding to most ambulance calls in Conewango Township in 90 days.

The city has entered into agreements with several municipalities, most recently Glade Township approved by Warren City Council on Monday, to provide daytime or as-needed EMS services into those municipalities.

Terms of those agreements result in municipal officials paying less than they might have without such an agreement.

“We are currently in the period where (the) City of Warren Fire Department Ambulance will respond to a dispatch to a township without an agreement in place but bill for the response if it is not mutual aid,” Fire Chief Dave Krogler explained.

“If the township does not pay the invoice within 30-days, a 90-day notice – as has been done to Conewango Twp. – is made to the township,” Department of Health, EMMCO West (a regional EMS council) and the Warren County Department of Public Safety that “without payment or an agreement” the city “will no longer respond to the township outside of mutual aid per the mutual aid agreement.”

While mutual aid may be an idea more closely associated with fire response, it does happen in EMS.

Krogler said incidents like a motor vehicle or carbon monoxide incident where there are multiple patients could result in a mutual aid response.

“Another scenario that I consider as mutual aid would be if a department with only one ambulance is already responding/handling an incident, but then another EMS call was dispatched in the same municipality,” he stressed. “Basically, mutual aid is when a department has an incident(s) of a magnitude that exceeds its resources and capabilities.”

“When a department does not answer a call or have adequate staffing to respond, that is not mutual aid.”

He added that the city is open to negotiations with the township in the midst of this 90-day window but that no such negotiations have occurred to date.