History

r organization has a rich heritage of providing prompt, professional emergency service to the town of Penfield for more than 55 years. The Penfield Volunteer Emergency Ambulance Service, Inc. was founded in 1966. Before our origination, people would need to call for an ambulance from the city of Rochester whenever an ambulance was needed in Penfield. After several serious calls where it took an ambulance over 30 minutes to arrive on the scene, the Penfield Lions Club formed a committee to investigate the feasibility of a volunteer ambulance service for Penfield. The committee determined it was feasible and raised $15,000 to purchase our first ambulance. Our first facility was in an old nursery on Whalen Road.

The Penfield Ambulance responded to 160 calls during our first year in operation. Initially, we could only staff our ambulance on evenings and weekends. Gradually, we were able to add a day at a time until we reached our goal of 24-hour, 7-day service. Soon after, we added a second ambulance.

In 1967, we built our first base on Jackson Road.

In 1977, we began training Critical Care Technicians, and the Lions Club came through again with the purchase of a station wagon to be used as our critical care unit, Medic 6. In 1977, our Critical Care Unit merged with the Southeast Quadrant to cover the towns of Penfield, Perinton, Pittsford, and East Rochester.

In 2002, we outgrew the building. We demolished 85% of the structure and erected a new building that houses our current operation.

In 2005, we made the big decision to start billing.

In 2007, Penfield Ambulance transitioned from paper Patient Care Reports (PCR) to electronic patient reports. At this time, we also made the transition to hire leased staffing from Monroe Ambulance to supplement any shifts not covered by volunteers.

In 2012, we hired our first Operations Manager, Dan Riordan (EMS Manager). Dan became the first EMS Manager to take over after having a volunteer DO since its inception in 1966. Towards the end of 2012, we first hired our own employees, ending the lease contract with Monroe Ambulance.

In 2017, Penfield Ambulance decided it would better serve our community if we began staffing Paramedics to provide paramedic services to the community. In September, we hired our second Operations Manager, Dustin Mandell (Chief Paramedic), and shortly after, received approval from the Monroe Livingston Regional Emergency Medical Advisory Committee (REMAC) to provide Advanced Life Support (ALS) services to the Town of Penfield starting in 2018.[Penfield Ambulance thanks former members of South East Quadrant for their dedication and support in providing ALS services in conjunction with Penfield Ambulance for the past 40 years.]

On January 1, 2018, Penfield Ambulance took their first Paramedic level call. In addition to our two Operations Managers, Penfield Ambulance had hired their first full-time employees. 

 In 2021, the West Webster Fire Department (WWFD) awarded Penfield Ambulance coverage of their ambulance district, and we started operating out of a second base at their Fire station located on Gravel Road. Penfield Ambulance operates out of the WWFD Monday through Friday from 6 am to 6 pm with the agreement that we would expand that coverage to 24/7 if necessary to accommodate an increase in call volume in the area. 

In 2023, the Penfield Ambulance call volume increased to over 7,300 911 calls annually. The Penfield Ambulance maintains a fleet of 7 ambulances and a Fly Car. We generally staff 4 ambulances during the busiest weekday shifts, with 3 ambulances during the evenings and weekends and 2 ambulances on the overnights when call volume drops.