Westville Joins Gloucester County EMS
Tuesday, January 01, 2019
Westville is the 21st town to join GCEMS 
Westville Twp., NJ) – Gloucester County Freeholder Director Robert Damminger and Freeholder Deputy Director Giuseppe 'Joe' Chila announced today that beginning on December 28, 2018, Gloucester County Emergency Medical Services (GCEMS) will begin handling emergency medical services for the Borough of Westville.
Director Damminger said, "We now have 21 of the county’s 24 municipalities participating in this regionalized service. We are pleased that Westville has decided to join GCEMS and we are confident that they will be pleased with the level of professional service they receive."
“The GCEMS staff are highly qualified professionals who are constantly receiving training on the newest methods and equipment. The program is a model in the state.”
GCEMS currently has a fleet of 34 ambulances and multiple support vehicles and 200 dedicated staff members responding from thirteen EMS stations. The crews operate on a 24 hour 7- days a week basis with power shifts for peak hours.
Freeholder Deputy Director Chila said, “Adding Westville to the program will not impact the service that GCEMS provides the towns and they will continue to maintain the national response time standard developed by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services.” Chila is also the liaison to GCEMS.
GCEMS is New Jersey’s first county-based EMS agency and was launched by the Freeholder Board in 2007 as a response to local concerns about ambulance response times.
GCEMS utilizes a ‘Dynamic Staging’ model of operation to continuously redeploy available staffed ambulances (those crews that are currently not on a call) in anticipation of additional calls for service. This deployment strategy potentially lowers actual response times to subsequent incidents and permits crews to arrive at the patient’s location quickly and efficiently.
GCEMS now services Clayton, Glassboro, Pitman, Mantua Twp., Elk Twp., Logan Twp., West Deptford Twp., Paulsboro, Swedesboro, East Greenwich Twp., Woolwich Twp., National Park, Greenwich Twp., Harrison Twp., South Harrison Twp., City of Woodbury, Woodbury Heights, Borough of Wenonah, Franklin Twp., Newfield and Westville.