The town of Rockport’s Ambulance Department is made up of all dedicated volunteers. The department functions as a strictly 911 emergency ambulance service that serves Rockport (one of the communities with the oldest average age in the Commonwealth), as well as providing mutual aid coverage to neighboring communities, including the City of Gloucester. Averaging almost 1000 EMS calls per year, we respond to all types of medical emergencies such as cardiac arrests, traumas, opioid overdoses, behavioral health evaluations, and much more. In many ways Rockport is a community that is underserved medically as there is no hospital, clinic or physician in town, making the need for a dedicated ambulance service crucial.
Since our founding, the department’s primary objective has been to serve the community. Aside from responding to emergency medical calls, we contribute to a host of community service projects throughout the year in town. These include visiting children at local preschools and the town's elementary school, providing donations of warm winter clothing to families to help them brave the weather, as well as making discrete cash contributions to help families after floods and fires so they can restart their lives.
The department generates revenue primarily by billing the insurance companies for patient care, treatment and transport to Addison Gilbert Hospital and Beverly Hospital. Recently we have had issues with our billing service and were unable to generate as much revenue as we did in the past. Insurance reimbursements, as well as generous donations from community members, were redirected to help maintain our trucks in addition to participating in these community service events. Unfortunately, given our financial predicament we have not been able to be as generous as we have in the past. Our objective in applying for this micro-grant is to allow us to continue contributing to these worthy community service events and unplanned immediate needs of our residents.