Cost of ambulance transports to increase

Since 2005, UMCP has been in the process of relocating from its current location on Witherspoon Street, roughly 0.5 miles from campus, to a new facility 2.5 miles away in Plainsboro.

Currently, students who require ambulance transport from campus to UMCP pay a $665 fee, billable to most insurance plans. The move will increase fees by $45, to $710.

Ambulance fees are determined by miles traveled, Frank Setnicky, Director of the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad, said. PFARS is the local volunteer organization that responds to on-campus calls. After a $650 load fee, patients are charged $15 per mile traveled. PFARS responded to 404 calls from campus in 2010, according to response statistics on their website.

Setnicky said that the increased fees should not deter anyone from calling for help when needed.

“Our fees are within the accepted standard for basic life support calls,” he said in an email. “Almost always the patient’s insurance company pays the ambulance fee.”

University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua noted that the increased ambulance charge would likely be covered by health insurance plans. “The University and UMCP are committed to ensuring a smooth transition and discussions are ongoing to address transportation and other move-related matters,” he said in an email.

Public Safety said the increased distance from campus to the hospital means the time it takes to transport students will significantly increase. Public Safety Deputy Director of Operations Charles Davall said in an email that in non-emergency cases it currently takes 15 minutes for an officer to go to UHS, pick up a student, take the student to UMCP and return to campus. It will take officers up to an hour to complete the round trip to and from the new facility, he said.

Davall added that the hospital’s move will not affect an officer’s decision to take an intoxicated student to UHS or UMCP.

“The decision in the field to take a person to UMCP or to UHS is dictated by the seriousness of the injury or condition,” he said in an email. “Monetary cost or distance to the facility isn’t a factor for us.”

Davall told The Daily Princetonian in 2009 that students are usually transferred to UMCP when their blood alcohol level is too high to keep them at UHS. This past weekend — the weekend of some club initiations — saw four students transferred to UMCP, compared to eight in 2011, two in 2010 and 11 in 2009.

While ambulance fees will rise with the hospital’s move, UMCP is working with University and local organizations to make the transport to and from the new facility easier, Princeton HealthCare System spokesperson Andy Williams said in an email.

Williams said the hospital is working with other organizations to “bridge the Route 1 divide — literally” by building an overpass at Harrison Street, a $200 million project that Williams said the New Jersey Department of Transportation considered “far too expensive to build at the current time.”

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For now, a new lane constructed on Harrison Street will enable vehicles to go left onto Route 1 from two lanes rather than just one. Williams said the “million-dollar improvement” will make transport to the hospital from Harrison Street “very fast — literally just a few minutes from campus.”

In addition, emergency vehicles, including ambulances and Public Safety cars, will have remote control devices to change the light at approaching intersection so they can cross uninterrupted. Once on Route 1, there is a driveway reserved for emergency vehicles to give them direct access to the emergency room, Williams said.

For non-emergency situations, students will have access to a Princeton University Plainsboro/Forrestal shuttle and a new NJ Transit bus that will go directly from campus to the hospital, Williams said. The hospital is also working with Public Safety to ensure that all students brought to the emergency room will be able to get a ride home.

“Even though the new hospital is only two miles from campus, getting across Route 1 as a pedestrian is a challenge,” he said.

Williams noted that the new hospital is actually closer to the southern parts of campus, particularly Jadwin Gymnasium and the football stadium, than the current facility is.

The increased cost seemed less concerning to students and administrators than the increased distance was. Dimitris Papaconstantinou ’13, president of Terrace Club, said he thought that the “minimal difference” was unlikely to discourage students from heavy drinking.

“Theoretically, the cost of ambulance transfer should serve as a deterrent for binge drinking. $710 is a lot of money,” Papaconstantinou said in an email. “I don’t know, however, whether that has tangible, practical effects in Princeton.”

Colonial Club President Roland Hwang ’13 said students were already aware of the personal risks of heavy drinking and that the modest increase in ambulance fees would probably not make a difference.

“Going to UMCP is already a huge deterrent for students to control themselves and stop drinking,” Hwang said in an email. “They know that the bill is already very burdensome, on top of the fact that being drunk to the point of hospitalization is very dangerous.”

Hwang said he did not think the fee increase would pose a problem for Colonial, as he said his club “rarely” sees students hospitalized for alcohol consumption.

Michael Olin, Director of Student Life for Wilson College, said that when he meets with students who have been transported to UMCP, the conversation rarely focuses on the monetary cost of the ordeal.

“Often that part of the conversation revolves around the student talking to the family, or a bill being sent home by the hospital,” Olin said in an email. “Most of the conversation is focused on what happened, how they ended up being transported and how they can avoid being in that situation in the future.”

Papaconstantinou also said that the modest fee increase would probably not make a difference to students calling for help. “When someone is in danger, money really doesn’t come into consideration,” he said.

The new hospital is slated to open May 22.