Two ambulance associations have partnered to provide patients better care in eastern Schuylkill County.

The Tamaqua Community and Lehighton ambulance associations teamed up earlier this year to place a dedicated advanced life support unit at the Tamaqua station along Railroad Street to serve Tamaqua’s coverage area.

Lehighton provided the ambulance, which is stationed in Tamaqua weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., along with a paramedic, said Keith Heckman, administrator for Lehighton Ambulance.

Tamaqua Community provides an emergency medical technician for Lehighton Ambulance’s truck, which also bears Tamaqua’s name, and a bay for the vehicle at its station, he said.

Tamaqua Community provides basic life support services and transport 24 hours a day/seven days a week in its coverage area, which includes Tamaqua and Coaldale boroughs, and Rush, Walker and Schuylkill townships, said John Cray, director of operations.

“What we’re running into the past couple months was a lot of mutual aid response from Tamaqua. So, the constituents of Tamaqua weren’t getting a Tamaqua ambulance, because Tamaqua Ambulance was on other calls in other areas,” he said.

Working with Lehighton ambulance allows the association to offset those responses, which include mutual aid into West Penn, Ryan and Kline townships, and provide better, faster responses Cray said.

Before the partnership, a paramedic unit would have to respond into Tamaqua from Carbon County, said Jarad Yeastedt, patient services manager for Lehighton said.

“We’re doing about 15,000 responses a year in Carbon County with Lehighton Ambulance alone,” he said. “It’s already a busy system. Us being over here and partnering, we’re able to put another resource in the community without having as much personnel needed from either side.

“Everyone contributed a little bit and we’re able to resource this,” Yeastedt said, adding the cooperative effort decreases response time and gets medical personnel to a “bedside quicker.”

The shared Lehighton-Tamaqua unit has already responded to 125 calls in its first 50 days of operation, he said, and the associations are looking at increasing the coverage times.

The shared unit carries the Lehighton Ambulance name, but also has the Tamaqua Ambulance name. The associations also split the reimbursements 60/40, with the shared unit doing transports.

The shared unit does not take away from Lehighton Ambulance coverage in Carbon County, either, Yeastedt said. The ambulance has four stations manned with five ALS units in Carbon County, plus, the shared unit can respond as well if needed, he said.

In recent years the number of providers is decreasing and the number of calls is increasing, making partnerships such as this a positive for the community, Cray said.

“This is beneficial for everybody,” he said.