HILLSDALE—The chief of Hillsdale’s Volunteer Ambulance Service, which includes a paid weekday EMT staff from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. said that the service answered more than 500 calls for service in 2024 and arrived generally in under five minutes on scene.
Chief John Beatty told the council that the combined volunteer and paid ambulance service answered a total of 514 calls locally and in surrounding towns in 2024.
At the Feb. 11 council meeting, Beatty also said that since Monday, Jan. 20, the daytime EMT service has been a shared service between Hillsdale and River Vale that uses the paid EMTs to cover weekday calls in both towns. Hillsdale began the combined paid-volunteer ambulance service in September 2023.
He said since Jan. 20, the paid daytime EMT service has responded to 11 calls in River Vale. He said so far the paid weekday crew has missed only one call in River Vale when a crew was responding to a Hillsdale call. He said they’ve heard “nothing but positive feedback” from River Vale police on ambulance response.
Initially, Hillsdale also reached out to Old Tappan and Washington Township to study a four-town ambulance service. However, Old Tappan dropped out and only River Vale pursued the shared service partnership with Hillsdale.
Beatty said previously when he served as chief, the volunteer ambulance service answered up to 60% of regular calls to out-of-town addresses. He said that dropped to “a much more manageable 15% last year.”
He said that means donations from residents and a stipend from the council is being used mostly for residents. He said that call volume was up last year, noting it increased by 61 calls last year. He said Hillsdale does not respond to mutual aid calls during paid EMT hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
He said in 2024, 318 calls, or 62%, were handled by paid EMT staff during 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and 196 calls were handled by volunteer crews on nights and weekends. He said another 107 calls were handled by volunteer agencies, including 27 when Hillsdale crews were on in-town calls, and also paid EMS assistance for 36 calls.
He said call volume has risen since 2024, with 75 calls in January 2025. Last January, he said there were 45 calls for service. Of the 75 calls, 38 were answered by volunteer EMTs and 37 by paid EMTs during weekday hours. He said at that rate, he estimated nearly 900 service calls likely in 2025.
On Tuesday, Feb. 11, he said the volunteer EMS crew was already answering its third call since 6 p.m. “We are already at 33 calls for the month of February, so we’re busy but that’s a good thing, right,” Beatty said.
He said after receiving a call from dispatch, the ambulance crew arrives in an average of four minutes, 46 seconds, to calls in Hillsdale and River Vale. He said the average time for Hillsdale EMS to arrive on scene to any call, including out of town, is 10 minutes or less.
“And this is a dramatic improvement of the nearly 15-minute average, which is the on-scene time you’re currently waiting in Bergen County,” Beatty told council.
He said the ambulance service “continues to lead talks” with neighboring agencies to possibly share services or combine to better serve residents.