Despite fielding record calls, Salem’s new city-run ambulance system is more consistent than its privately-run predecessor at having ambulances available for patients who need them. That’s according to Salem fire Chief Dave Gerboth, who updated Salem city councilors Monday on the system’s p erformance. He also said the service is financially sound. The Salem Fire Department took over the city’s ambulance system in July after about a decade contracting with private provider Falck Northwest. The company struggled to keep ambulances properly staffed, forcing the fire department to implement overtime to backfill service.  Here are the key takeaways from Gerboth’s presentation about the city ambulance service.  New hires should reduce overtime Gerboth successfully appealed to councilors Monday to authorize hiring four new full-time ambulance workers to reduce overtime and improve the work-life balance for personnel. The fire department is spending about $528,000 on overtime to keep ambulances staffed compared with the roughly $644,000 annually it will pay for the new employees. City Manager Krishna Namburi said hiring more personnel creates a more sustainable model. “We are already spending this money. So, the way I look at it is redirecting that money more for permanent staffing,” Namburi said during the meeting.  Councilors unanimously authorized the new employees and praised the fire department’s success. More calls than ever  Gerboth said the fire department ended 2025 with the highest number of calls in the city’s history. He said that the fire department got more than 36,000 calls last year. The biggest increase came from medical calls, which went up by 9%. The vast majority of the fire department’s call volume comes from medical calls, according to the city’s website.  Fire related calls increased by 1.3%, Gerboth said.  He said in 2025 the fire department transported about 56 people daily to the hospital, which is more than the department had planned for.  Ambulance system is financially healthy  Gerboth said the new system is financially healthy and that the department’s expected revenues are on track to cover the department’s roughly $14 million to date in ambulance system expenses.  Out of a total of roughly $29 million in bills sent out to patients since the system went online, the department has collected roughly $4 million in revenue, and expects to collect about $12 million more over time.   Gerboth also said the department expects to receive its first payment from the federal government through a program that reimburses public agencies for some ambulance transports. He said the department expects about $2 million in reimbursements.  Gerboth said the new ambulance system is bringing in enough money to pay its $1.1 million dispatching costs without having to dip into the city’s general fund, which has typically footed part of the bill in the past. Ambulances are available and typically arriving on time  Gerboth said the department’s consistent staffing levels allowed the fire department to hit county mandates, which require arriving on the scene on time at least 90% of the time. In Marion County, the fire department arrives on time 90.3% of the time, and in Polk County, it arrives on time 92.2% of the time.  Gerboth said before Salem fire took over, the city would routinely be in a situation known as “level zero,” where there are no available ambulances to deploy for emergencies. That could be because ambulances were responding to other calls or tied up with a patient at the hospital. He said at times this would occur for as long as six hours in a day. Now, Gerboth said, the fire department’s average time with no available ambulances is about 27 minutes per day.  “Oftentimes we will go in and out of level zero. We may have level zero for five minutes and then back into normal status as ambulances become available, generally out of the hospital,” Gerboth said. “So, vastly improved system status.”  Gerboth also touted the new REACH Team, the department’s crisis response model partnering ambulance workers with a mental health specialist, launched earlier this month. He said a recent deployment of the team for a woman suffering from Parkinson’s disease helped avoid an unnecessary ambulance and hospital visit, freeing up resources for medical calls.   Gerboth said the woman was shaking but the mental health specialist was able to ascertain that the shaking was because of stress related to an abusive living situation.  She was taken to the Marion County Crisis Center and connected with services.  “We avoided an engine being dispatched, we avoided an ambulance being used, and we avoided an unnecessary visit to the ER on day two,” Gerboth said. “Those are the types of metrics we are looking for and to continue.”  Less reliance on mutual aid  Improved service has reduced the fire department’s reliance on ambulances from other jurisdictions like Keizer, which ensures the fire department can bill for service and receive revenue for those calls, Gerboth said.  Prior to the new system, the city would have hundreds of mutual aid calls per month. Last month, Gerboth said, the department had 46 mutual aid calls.  Contact reporter Joe Siess: [email protected]. LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED TO YOU: Subscribe to Salem Reporter and get all the fact-based Salem news that matters to you. Fair, accurate, trusted – SUBSCRIBE The post 5 takeaways: Salem’s new ambulance system financially stable, more reliable, after 6 months appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less