Pa. Ambulance Company Gives, Gets Respect

Feb. 22--HERMITAGE -- Respect goes both ways. If you want to be respected, you have to respect others.

At McGonigle Ambulance Service Inc., the McGonigle family have garnered a lot of respect over 50 years, but company President Karen McGonigle Murphy turns that praise around and says the company's survival has more to do with its employees.

Murphy said the company follows the teaching of her father, J. Bradley McGonigle, who started the ambulance company in 1964 with his wife, Mary Ellen.

"The most important thing to my dad other than his family was his business," Murphy said. "You treat everybody like you want your mother treated."

The neckties ambulance personnel still wear in this era of business casual dress is a sign of the respect the company has for its patients.

McGonigle Ambulance, like many ambulance services, was an off-shoot of a funeral home, the J. Bradley McGonigle Funeral Home and Crematory in Sharon. The family opened the ambulance side in the former McGrath's Funeral Home, using a hearse as an ambulance.

"I've been through the whole growth process," Murphy said, noting she was lured back to the company in 1985 after college.

Three of her brothers -- Brad, Tim and Pat -- play officer roles in the corporation.

"We're so proud -- my parents started this," she said. "My family worked together as a team."

In 1992, the family made the ambulance service a separate company, but it didn't achieve its own space until 2012, when the former Varley Dodge dealership in Hermitage was renovated.

"This is our home," said Director of Operations John Libonati, giving a tour. "It feels like home."

The building brings under one roof operations that had been run from three separate locations, including the funeral home. It has administrative offices; billing offices; 24-hour dispatch staffed by emergency medical technicians; separate male and female sleeping and shower facilities; an exercise room; a classroom used for training, company events and other purposes; a HIPAA-compliant workspace for employees to write reports with patient-sensitive information; a laundry area (employees are not allowed to wear their uniforms home); and vehicle storage bays. In the summer, there's even a garden out back to grow food for employees to cook on site.

"It's a true state-of-the-art facility," Libonati said.

Administratively, it's great to have everything under one roof, and officials believe the new building has helped retain employees, Murphy said. But, it is not making the company any more money, she said.

"We're not generating more ambulance calls out of this building," she said. "We're investing in our staff and our community."

The company is facing the same struggles as any other healthcare corporation, she said, along with some unique ones.

Reimbursements from Medicare and other health insurers are down from what they used to be, while costs are up.

"Like every other business, we've had to tighten the belt," Murphy said. "You get price quotes on whatever you're buying and watch where you're getting your gasoline."

With increased requirements for clinical staff certifications, it's harder to recruit new employees.

"The paramedic went from being a $400 certificate program to a degree that costs $8,000 to $10,000," Libonati said.

While the increased costs are reflected in the increased treatment and drug options for paramedics, salaries have not kept pace.

"Nationally, it's a very low-paid industry," Murphy said.

"Most of the people who come into the service are passionate about the service," said Libonati, a 30-year paramedic who would rather be running calls than processing paperwork. "They're there for the cause."

McGonigle Ambulance has 54 employees, 45 of whom are "clinical" workers such as paramedics, EMTs and wheelchair van drivers.

"We are blessed to say we're fully staffed," Libonati said, noting he's continually surprised at how long McGonigle employees stay with the company. Some employees have been with the company as long as she has, Murphy said.

"It's a real family here," she said.

Financially, the company has made the most of memberships and contracts with nursing homes and industries.

"They (McGonigle family members) made very good decisions fiscally, operationally," said Libonati, a self-described obsessive-compulsive who has been with the company eight years.

The industry has diversified and Libonati said he expects those changes will work there way into the local market in the years to come.

Increased regulations caused many funeral home-affiliated ambulance services to fold, and "the whole healthcare industry is very scary right now," Murphy said.

But, she said, she focuses on the mission of the company in working through the difficulties.

"It feels good to help people," she said.

Copyright 2015 - The Herald, Sharon, Pa.