CarePlus Seeks to Fill Void Left by Departure of Rockingham Ambulance

For Larry Raymond, losing his job at Rockingham Ambulance hurts, but he's in a better position to take the pain than some of his colleagues.

On Thursday, Raymond, of Nashua, said when he learned two weeks ago that Rockingham Ambulance was closing, it came as a shock.

"To me, personally, it was kind of out of the blue," he said. "We had an idea that something was happening, but we didn't expect this."

Raymond, who is of retirement age, said he can take being laid off, but for his co-workers with young families, they've been dealt a harder blow. He's looking, at this point, for part-time work, he said.

Rockingham Regional Ambulance, Inc., a subsidiary of St. Joseph Hospital, became a victim of state budget cuts that left the hospital facing millions in losses over the next two years and a decision to close the doors to the emergency response business and Granite State Mediquip, Inc., both based out of Nashua.

St. Joseph Hospital is among a long list of hospitals cutting services and staff – a move they are blaming on recent state cuts – including Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, also in Nashua, Manchester's Elliot Hospital and Catholic Medical Center.

As Raymond stood outside of CarePlus Ambulance Service in Merrimack on Thursday, following a tour of the facility, a couple of his colleagues filtered out of the building having been in there with him, talking with staff and filling out employment applications.

CarePlus held two open houses Thursday targeted at reaching out to a number of the approximately 160 people losing their jobs when Rockingham Ambulance shuts down on Sept. 30, CarePlus CEO and President Eric Damon said.

CarePlus is one of at least a handful of companies planning to make a bid to take over 911 service in the City of Nashua when Rockingham ends operations next month.

Damon said Thursday that winning the 911 bid would go a long way toward putting many of the Rockingham Ambulance employees who lost their jobs back into business in an area they know well.

And while it won't be known until the middle of September which company will be chosen by the city for primary emergency services, CarePlus in the meantime is out talking with nursing and retirement homes in the Nashua area hoping to find more work along the lines of its primary focus of non-emergency transport.

Damon said CarePlus, which he founded in 1988 and started with an ambulance he bought for $1, transports more the 50,000 people a year primarily bringing people from hospital to hospital or hospital to nursing home or vice versa.

They have eight locations in New Hampshire, including the Merrimack headquarters, which employs around 60 of the company's 165 employees.

For the most part, the Merrimack location runs only non-emergency calls, as Nashua has contracted for many years with Rockingham Ambulance and Merrimack has its own fire and rescue operation to handle emergencies in town, Damon said.

But given the opportunity to be the primary 911 provider in Nashua, he said they'd jump at the chance and even more the better if they can put some of Rockingham's employees back into full-time jobs.

"We had someone who came on here just before (Rockingham Ambulance) announced what they were doing," Damon said. "Now, we have probably upward of 60 applications."

Even if CarePlus is not awarded the 911 service, Damon said the company still has a few positions it is looking to fill and it's hoping to have more, if they can get work with some of those nursing retirement homes that were using Rockingham Ambulance for non-emergency services.

CarePlus also contracts, along with two other companies, with Southern New Hampshire Medical Center, working on a rotation for non-emergencies, and Damon said he hopes to see something similar with St. Joseph Hospital.

With Nashua not making its bid decision until mid-September, however, Damon said it's going to create a bit of a scramble if they are chosen. When Rockingham closes its doors on Sept. 30, its replacement will need to be ready to go on Oct. 1, and for CarePlus, that means adding vehicles and equipment to its fleet to handle the volume of calls.

"Unfortunately, the timing of it will leave all of us in a scramble," Damon said.

For Raymond, he's just hoping to find something in the non-emergency field. He's worked with Rockingham Ambulance for the last 11 years, primarily as a wheel chair van driver and it's something he'd like to continue.

Working as an EMT for 20 years before that, out in Rindge and in Texas, these days, Raymond prefers something a little slower pace like driving the wheel chair vans or working in the public relations sector of the business.

"I won't be going back to EMT," he said. "That's a young-person's job."

Raymond said the tour of CarePlus was impressive and informative and the company is different than he expected.

"Working for a competitor, you only hear the bad stuff, what people don't like about the other company."

Raymond said its not unexpected that CarePlus and American Medical Response, another local provider, are out looking at what they can do to replace Rockingham Ambulance.

"It's all very much up in the air," he said. "The people in the (hospitals and nursing homes) are probably more apprehensive than we are."

Still Raymond is hopeful that he'll find a replacement for his job with Rockingham Ambulance in the field that he loves.

"When I came back (from Texas) I came to Nashua, because that's where the work was. A little research at the time showed Rockingham was better than the rest," Raymond said. "I was hired as a dispatcher and then got put on a wheel chair van. I love it. I meet a lot of great  people and it's just a fun job."

Raymond knows he's facing a lot of competition. But he's confident in his abilities.

"Personally, I can bring a lot to any company," he said. "I have an excellent rapport with the staffs, patients and families around here."