North Wales borough council members pose with VMSC-EMS Chief Shane Wheeler, fourth from left, as they present a check representing the town’s annual contribution to VMSC. From left to right are council members Brittany Kohler, Sarah Whelan, Wendy McClure, Wheeler, councilmembers Sal Amato, Anji Fazio, Sally Neiderhiser, and Mayor Neil McDevitt. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
North Wales hears about busy year for VMSC-EMS
A local emergency response agency has gotten a big thank-you from one of its territories.
Borough officials presented a check to VMSC-EMS as thanks for the work to protect their community.
“We’re very grateful to North Wales for their continued support of our EMS operation,” said VMSC Chief Shane Wheeler.
“I’m happy to report that every municipality that we provide service to, there are 12, are subsidizing or providing monetary support this year,” he said.
Headquartered on the grounds of Lansdale Hospital in Hatfield Township, VMSC is an ambulance corps that provides emergency medical coverage to the North Penn and Indian Valley areas, and as of Jan. 1 formally changed their name to VMSC-Emergency Medical Services from the former Volunteer Medical Service Corps designation. Starting in 2023, VMSC leadership has made the case to those municipalities for consistent funding streams from the towns it serves, including in North Wales. A $10,000 annual contribution was included in the borough’s budget for 2025, and Wheeler gave council an update on the agency’s activities and expanding footprint on Tuesday night, using roughly $750,000 donated by the towns they serve.
“In 2024, we responded to 500 EMS calls exactly — a little unusual number, but 500 on the nose. Our number one type of call we responded to is in general for a sick person, falls are number two, and we’re trying to find ways to fund some fall mitigation programs,” Wheeler said.
“We’ve all seen that very robust and healthy 80-year-old that’s out in public doing things, and then they trip and fall and it’s a rough go from there, and often leads to a terminal situation in a short period of time. So we’re trying to find ways to fund some fall mitigation programs, and we think we have some ideas on how to do that,” he said.
VMSC has partnered with local law enforcement and fire companies to increase cardiac arrest survival rates via use of CPR and defibrillators, with survival rates within VMSC’s coverage area roughly double the rate of the rest of Pennsylvania, Wheeler said.
“So if you want to have a heartattack, please do it in one of our 12 municipalities,” he said. “Of the 114 cardiac arrests that we responded to (in 2024), 51 patients are alive today, of that 114. That’s just a remarkable number, people don’t believe it, but we can prove it.”
When VMSC’s board hired Wheeler to lead what had been a volunteer organization at the start of 2022, “there were many nights where I was the only paramedic available,” and the agency has since shifted to a “99 percent paid” structure, with a total of 57 certified paramedics now working for the agency. Two years ago, ten EMTs entered a paramedic training program in partnership with Jefferson Health, and all ten have now completed that program and a new class of 13 more have entered a second round.
VMSC has also recently rolled out a program of transfusing whole blood in the field, something only one percent of EMS agencies in the country are able to do, and the chief said that program has already made a difference.
“I’m happy to report that, just ten days ago, we did a blood transfusion in Towamencin, just down the street, successfully saving somebody’s life with a blood transfusion,” he said. “Without this municipal support, we would not have these successes.”
Councilman Mark Tarlecki asked for specifics on VMSC’s coverage area, and Wheeler said the agency now covers Franconia, Salford, part of Hilltown, Towamencin, Upper Gwynedd, Hatfield and Montgomery Townships, plus Telford, Souderton, Lansdale, North Wales and Hatfield boroughs. VMSC also has “a robust partnership” with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to transport certain patients there, has “dedicated resources at some of the hospitals” in the Jefferson Health system, and has a contract to provide EMS services to a military base in Monroe County, Wheeler said.
Resident Al Tenney asked for more on the blood transfusion program, and Wheeler said VMSC now carries universal donor blood that is stored in specialized refrigerators and deployed when needed.
“We have to keep the blood between 1 and 4 degrees Celsius, and then we have blood warmers that we attach to the blood when we’re getting it ready, and will raise that blood to body temperature for the transfusion,” he said.
Mayor Neil McDevitt then asked about the difference between paramedics versus EMTs, and Wheeler said EMTs typically require roughly 150 hours of training and focus on stabilizing patients immediately, without providing medications or IVs, while paramedics undergo 1,200 to 1,500 hours of training and can do the more advanced and intensive treatments: “Significantly different in the level of care.”
Councilman Sal Amato asked if VMSC had seen an increase in strokes in recent years, and Wheeler said VMSC responded to roughly 800 total stroke calls in 2024, adding that “We’re blessed in our community” to have “really great, comprehensive stroke care” at Lansdale Hospital and other area facilities.
For more on VMSC — EMS and their programs and services, visit www.vmscems.com or follow “VMSC Emergency Medical Services” on Facebook.
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