Published in the November 14, 2019 edition.
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — Action’s 20-year run as Wakefield’s ambulance company is coming to an end. Their last day of providing service in Wakefield will be Nov. 28, when their current 3-year contract expires. On Nov. 29 Cataldo Ambulance Service will take over in town.
The Town Council last night awarded Cataldo a 3-year contract to provide ambulance service in Wakefield based on the recommendation of a committee that included Police Chief Steven Skory, Fire Chief Michael Sullivan, Emergency Management Director Tom Walsh and Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio.
After Skory, Sullivan, Walsh and Maio agreed on the basic requirements that the town was seeking in an ambulance provider, a Request For Proposals was sent out on Sept. 1. By the Oct. 16 deadline, five companies had submitted proposals: Action Ambulance, Armstrong Ambulance, Fallon Ambulance Service, Brewster Ambulance Service and Cataldo Ambulance.
Skory, Sullivan and Walsh came before the Town Council last night to discuss the process that led to their recommendation.
Walsh said the he personally visited all five companies in a kind of interview process. He said that having worked in the fire service, he knew many area chiefs, whom he contacted for input.
Skory, Sullivan Walsh and Maio then began discussing the proposals submitted and used a rating system to score each company on four basic criteria: dispatch, response, coverage and capability.
Walsh said that a primary focus was to determine which company could provide the best emergency medical dispatch. He noted that Cataldo has dispatch centers in Malden and Peabody with 19 trained dispatchers. He said that Cataldo uses the latest dispatch software, which tracks the history of calls by address so that ambulance personnel can be better prepared on arrival.
He said that in terms of response, all of the companies were about equal but he felt that a couple of the companies would not quite meet the town’s needs in terms of coverage.
Walsh said that he concluded that Cataldo had more to offer in the way of resources than the other companies.
Maio said that the primary goal was to bring the best ambulance service to the town. He said that he was very satisfied with the process and concurred with the recommendation of Cataldo.
“For Wakefield, for now, Cataldo is the best,” Maio said.
It was noted that ambulances will be stationed in Wakefield at all times. There is no cost to the town for ambulance service as it is paid by patients’ insurance.
Town Councilor Jonathan Chines said that the RFP process was thorough and he felt that the town should not wait another 20 years before doing it again.
Chairman Edward Dombroski agreed, suggesting that it should be done every three years as the contract expires. But he also stressed that Action Ambulance has served the town well for the last 20 years.
Town Councilor Paul DiNocco said that he would like to have seen all of the proposals ahead of time in order to make a more informed decision. Maio noted that he did send out a memo inviting councilors to come to his office and review the proposals. Dombroski added that Maio and Walsh provided the Town Council with detailed memoranda on their recommendation.
Councilor Ann Santos said that she did review the proposals and was comfortable with both the process and the recommendation.
Maio stressed that the town always had a 60-day termination clause in its contracts with Action and the same would be true with Cataldo, so if the town felt the need to make a change before the contract expires, it would not have to wait another three years.
In the end, the vote was 5-1 to award the contract to Cataldo. DiNocco stressed that his “no” vote was not an objection to the choice of Cataldo, but to the process.
