Foxwall EMS and West Deer EMS have entered into what officials are calling a strategic partnership to better serve area residents.
For years, the companies have responded together to many calls as part of mutual aid.
Foxwall’s main coverage areas are Fox Chapel and Aspinwall. West Deer’s main areas are West Deer and Indiana Township.
The new arrangement, which officials have been working on the past few months, is designed to help increase staff availability, share equipment and boost service.
The departments hosted a joint training session and evaluation in December.
Officials took to Facebook that month to announce the partnership.
Leaders from each department spoke with TribLive about how things were going early this year.
“It kind of came about through routine discussions about mutual aid agreements,” Foxwall EMS Chief Ben Shopland said. “Every year, we’ll meet up with other services and renew our mutual aid agreements. Kind of check on how things are going. Make sure that we have the run cards sorted out so if someone’s unavailable, the right unit is dispatched.”
West Deer EMS is one of the newer partners, having taken over part of Indiana Township in January 2024 following the closure of Seneca Area EMS.
West Deer covered the Saxonburg Boulevard corridor while Lower Valley Ambulance covered the east side of town until August 2025, when township supervisors decided to go with one service provider.
West Deer recently established a substation at the Indiana Township municipal building along Saxonburg Boulevard.
“I think we’re two very like-minded services,” said West Deer EMS Director Bill Humes. “(The) patient comes first no matter what. Recognizing needs to change as things get busier, as EMS evolves (we’re) kind of being ahead of that change in that curve.”
Department statistics
Foxwall EMS was established as a nonprofit ambulance company in 1979.
It has 44 staffers, including eight full-timers, 23 part-timers and 13 volunteers.
Staffing includes two registered nurses, 18 paramedics, 22 EMTs and two advanced EMTS.
It has three advanced life support ambulances and one advanced life support squad, a former Aspinwall police vehicle.
One of its newer ambulances was purchased with funds from Aspinwall and Fox Chapel in summer 2024. The second was purchased by the department last summer.
The ambulance company responded to 1,953 requests for service in 2024, including 1,073 dispatch calls and 880 nonemergency transports.
Last year’s call volume was 2,126, with 1,215 dispatches and 911 nonemergency transports.
Its expenses last year were about $1.06 million with about $860,000 in operating costs and $200,000 in capital spending on fleet upgrades. Foxwall officials estimate this year’s budget will be about $900,000 .
West Deer EMS was established as a nonprofit ambulance service in 1977.
It has 11 full-time and 20 part-time staffers, including 13 paramedics, 15 EMTs, two advanced EMTs and one prehospital registered nurse.
The company has four ambulances and one squad vehicle. Its budget last year was $1.12 million.
West Deer crews responded to 3,047 calls in 2024 and 3,275 calls last year.
Partnership perks
Shopland and Humes said the partnership is a proactive approach to handling service in all four communities and eliminates invisible boundaries.
“A lot of this is about setting aside individual service pride and ego (and) figuring out what makes the most sense,” Shopland said.
“If you’re driving down Fox Chapel Road up the northern part along Guys Run Road and you slide on ice, (if) you slide to the right, you’re in Indiana Township; if you slide to the left, you’re in Fox Chapel. Wouldn’t you want who comes to help you be determined by who’s closer rather than what municipality you slide into?”
Humes said many of the staffers at each department know and train with each other.
He recalled an incident in November where Saxonburg Boulevard was shutdown because of a crash and downed poles and power lines, and the companies worked together to make sure all areas were covered.
“Being able to work with someone and trust someone else is a really big thing,” said West Deer EMS crew chief and paramedic Allora Santucci.
Her older brother, Domenic Santucci, also is a West Deer crew chief and a paramedic. He said he trained with Shopland and knows about 70% of Foxwall’s crew.
“I’d rather work with someone I work with more often than some random paramedic,” Domenic Santucci said.
The strategic partnership essentially would make manpower and equipment interchangeable through more joint training and without a formal merger.
Both leaders said they would be willing to discuss a merger but are not looking to take that consolidation step yet. They also stressed the partnership was not due to low staffing or financial troubles.
“There’s a lot that we can do to be more effective together without merging,” Shopland said. “Both services are doing fairly well. Why not figure out what we can do together to improve patient care, to improve response times? If that turns into something where it makes sense for us to become one, maybe that makes sense down the road. We’re not backed into a corner.”
Humes said he is excited about the opportunities moving forward.
“There’s no book for this, and we’re kind of writing as we go along,” Humes said.
There are no plans to close any stations or cut any resources.