Members of Greater Pittston Regional Ambulance (GPRA) were over the moon when they accepted the 2019 Pennsylvania EMS Agency of the Year Award at a ceremony in Manheim Thursday.
The state Department of Health and Pennsylvania Emergency Health Services Council honored GPRA with its first-ever statewide award. GPRA, nominated by Pittston City administrator Joe Moskovitz was notified in August it would get the award.
“We are thrilled. This is the first time we ever received the award,” said Atty. Michael Lombardo, Pittston City councilman and vice president of GPRA. “This is significant in the sense this is a statewide award and its large volume category which means we were up against the biggest EMS agencies in the state, so it’s a pretty significant recognition from our standpoint.”
Lombardo said the criteria for the award is based on what an agency contributes to the EMS system in Pennsylvania.
“It’s all about how well we are participating in the system and how well we are following statewide protocols and just being a good community provider,” he added. “This is an affirmation of the efforts that we make and we not that we do it for awards, but it’s certainly nice to be recognized for your efforts.”
GPRA provides services on a first-do basis to Pittston City, Jenkins Twp., Yatesville, Exeter, Wyoming and West Wyoming boroughs.
GPRA, which has been in operation for 67 years, also provides advance life support (ALS) or paramedic service to every community in the Pittston Area and Wyoming Area School Districts with the exception of the Borough of West Pittston.
Over the years, GPRA merged with Jenkins Twp. Ambulance and Exeter Borough Community Ambulance.
Lombardo feels the mergers will help push resources in the right direction and make the organization the best it can be.
“Through these mergers, we now have our station in Pittston, which is our headquarters, and we also operate out of the Exeter station,” Lombardo said. “We have around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we have two ambulances on duty, one on the east side (of the river) and one on the west side with our minimum staffing.”
There are 35-paid and volunteer responders under GPRA.
Lombardo said GPRA staff and volunteers are committed to EMS and are constantly updating equipment and training to give the community the best service possible.
“We do what we can to be good community participants. We just don’t provide good ambulance service, we are present in every community event like 5K races, church picnics, festivals and we also provide car seat checks,” he said. “The award is just an affirmation all of the efforts of so many people who are committed to the organization in making it the best that we can.”
