History

History

In 1958, American Legion Post 82 purchased an ambulance from Millville Hospital to transport Legion members to and from area VA Hospitals. Soon after the purchase of this ambulance, the American Legion began getting an overwhelming request for their service from within the community.

In December of that year, to better meet this request, they formed a new entity and incorporated it as the American Legion Rescue Squad, which by mid 1959 was taking all ambulance calls in Millville.

In 1962 several Legion members went to John Hopkins University in Baltimore to learn the newly developed technique referred to as Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), one of the first aspects of emergency care administered to patients in the field.

The Rescue Squad and American Legion Post 82 officially separated in 1988, and the organization became known as the Millville Rescue Squad. Then in 1995, to enhance response time to emergency calls, the volunteer membership voted to amend the by-laws to allow paid members. This led to licensure by the New Jersey Department of Health in 1996 to begin providing Emergency Medical Services with a combination of paid and volunteer staffing. From that day foward, we have continued to exceed national standards for response times.

Millville Rescue Squad officially expanded its service line in 1998 by entering into a contractual agreement with South Jersey Hospital System, to provide ambulance and

wheelchair van transportation for Newcomb, Elmer, Bridgeton, and Millville Hospitals. Since then services have expanded to include nursing homes, dialysis centers, physicians' offices and outpatient centers. The most recent service added, in 2000, is our Critical Care Transport Unit.

MRS currently serves more than 30,000 patients per year, with a staff of 100+ employees and a payroll exceeding $3,000,000 annually. We now own and operate 44 medical response, rescue, and transport vehicles. Our projected operating budget is $5,000,000.

It is important to know that, as Millville Rescue Squad has continued to grow and expand, we have not lost sight of our primary mission: to provide quality emergency and non-emergency medical transportation to the City of Millville and the other communities we serve.

Timeline

In the late 1950's: Several Members of the Nabb-Leslie Post 82 American Legion Rescue Squad identified a need to transport veterans to Philadelphia and Delaware Veteran Hospitals. They purchased an ambulance from Millville Hospital for $1. And the formation process began.

On December 18, 1958 they became incorporated as a non-profit corporation and began transporting veterans for their medical needs.

By 1960 the American Legion Rescue Squad had evolved to providing emergency response to the entire community.

In the early 1960's, with the development of a new procedure called "cardiopulmonary resuscitation" and new techniques in basic first aid, members went to John Hopkins University to take training.

In the mid 1960's the services expanded into rescue services such as automobile extrication and civil defense heavy rescue training. Members took extensive heavy rescue training at the New Jersey State Police Training Center in Hammonton, NJ.

In 1969 a heavy rescue team was formed. Competing in world competitions in 1969, 1970 and 1971 they returned from Canada with a 4th place world finish.

During the early 1970's, volunteer membership was strong with a waiting list to join. During this era Millville Rescue Squad was a lead agency with a strong volunteer membership and leadership.

In 1970 they moved from garages behind American Legion to a newly renovated facility at 500 Columbia Avenue.

In the late 1970's volunteerism began to decline due to factors including increased demands for service, increased mandatory training requirements, economic conditions and communicable disease fears.

In 1985 in an effort to retain and recruit volunteers the decision was made to discontinue non emergency medical transportation and restrict services to 911 response only.

In 1988 the American Legion separated ties and the organization became known as Millville Rescue Squad.

From the late 1980's through the early 1990's volunteer staffing and service reliability fluctuated dramatically with increasing periods of response failures.

In 1989 squad leadership began exploring paid staffing options.

By 1994 they experienced unacceptable periods of response reliability and immediate action was needed for paid staffing.

In 1995 the volunteer membership voted to approve a corporate re-structuring with a 7 member community lead Board of Directors.

In October of 1995 a newly formed charter Board of Directors met for the first time.

In November of 1995 the Board hired Chief John Redden as full time Chief Executive Officer.

January 1996, Millville Rescue Squad obtained licensing from NJ Department of Health and Medicare provider status. Six full time EMT's are hired to provide 24 hour shift coverage with paid staffing.

June 1998 Millville Rescue Squad awarded the medical transportation contract by South Jersey HEalthcare System. A fleet of additional ambulances purchased and staffing increased to over 50.

1998-2000 Millville Rescue Squad expanded medical transportation services to skilled nursing facilities and out-patient facilities throughout the region and staffing increases to 100.

April 2000 a Specialty Care Transport program is developed providing critical transportation with Registered Nurses.

February 2001 moved into new state of the art facility on Cedar Street.

2001-2004 expansions of 911 service and transportation service increases staffing to 130.

August 8, 2004 Millville Rescue Squad stategically coordinated the transportation of over 200 patients in one day as two South Jersey hospitals close and the Reginal Medical Center opens.

2008 Millville Rescue Squad contracts with NJ Motorsports Park to provide all emergency services. Staffing increases to over 200.