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Frequently Asked Questions

Who: Cheshire County Emergency Medical Services is a new branch of service for Cheshire County. This service is available to everyone that lives, works, or travels through our County.

What: This new service provides Emergency Medical Services, both emergency, and non-emergency, to all corners of the County. The program has been designed to provide both Basic and Paramedic levels of service and transportation. The future will include an education division that will support the training needs of the staff as well as offer CPR and First Aid training to residents and businesses throughout the County. This new service is a publicly owned and operated system, not a private for-profit company.

Why: Cheshire County officials have studied the need for a service that will be able to provide a consistent, high level of Emergency Medical care and transport to the region. Using funds from the Federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), the County has purchased land and built a facility to provide a base for the program. The funding has also allowed for the purchase of two older ambulances to get the program up and running, and have ordered new units that are being built and will be delivered in 2023.

Where: Cheshire County Emergency Medical Services Headquarters will be at a new state-of-the-art campus located at 66 Lake Street in Swanzey. As the program is built out, additional resources will be housed in other locations throughout the county to help meet our goal of having a Professional, Licensed EMS provider where they are needed in under 9 minutes from notification.

When: The service began a rollout phase in November of 2022 by conducting hospital transfers to other healthcare facilities. As more staffing and equipment come online, the service will be expanding and adjusting to meet the service demands.

How: The County Commissioners have studied the current and future needs of Emergency Medical Services and are supporting the program at the county level. All the employees are sworn County employees. A core group of seasoned licensed providers are on board and will be working to mentor new staff and build out the system. Continuity and a high level of consistent patient care and service are important elements of the program. The management team is passionate about assuring the residents they have the highest level of care coming from a professional group of providers and that the needs of the communities are being met in a professional and timely manner.


If I need an Ambulance, what do I do?
For all Emergencies, DIAL 911.

If you need to schedule an ambulance to transport to and or from a Health Care Facility, please call our office at 603-355-1900, and we will schedule this with you.

Is this a private ambulance service?

No. This is a Cheshire County-owned and operated service. All providers are sworn professional employees of Cheshire County.

Where does the Ambulance come from?

Cheshire County Ambulance Headquarters is located at 66 Lake Street in Swanzey. Other ambulances and staffing are strategically located in other parts of the county based on the service needs of each individual community.

Why does an SUV show up when I need an ambulance?

Cheshire Emergency Medical Services aims to have a licensed EMS provider on the scene and to begin patient care in under nine minutes at least 90% of the time. In order to reach our goal, you may see a fully equipped SUV arrive first to begin patient care while an ambulance is en route to transport the patient to the hospital.

Cheshire EMS will also be providing an intercept service that will provide a paramedic level of care to any community that requests the service. Our goal is to provide the care that is in the patient’s best interest and to do so by working with our EMS partners from a community’s local ambulance provider.

Who pays for the service?

The County has committed to providing this service and has used Federal funds to build the program. As with any ambulance (municipal or private), there is a fee for service if a patient is transported. The County will bill all patients transported. Most insurance companies will take care of all or a portion of the Invoice. All invoices will come from Coastal Medical Billing. If you have a question about your bill or need to provide insurance information that was not collected, please call Coastal Direct at 508-295-8030. They will be glad to help you out.

Regardless of your insurance or your ability to take care of an invoice, we will ALWAYS respond and assist you with your medical emergency. Your health and well-being are important to us.

What other services do you provide?

Currently we are focusing all our efforts in establishing a consistent high level of Emergency Medical Services to any Community that requests the service. We will be establishing a training division within our service that will be keeping our staff trained to the highest skill level by training to be proficient in all the skills they are licensed to provide.

Cheshire County EMS wants to be a part of the Community and will be out at public events as much as possible. We will also be establishing a training group that will be available to residents and business to teach CPR, and first aid programs on request.

Does this new service mean my local ambulance service is being taken over?

  1. Cheshire EMS is not coming in and taking over any municipal or private ambulance service. We will provide as a mutual aid service, an ambulance or paramedic intercept whenever we are requested for assistance. Our management staff is willing to work with any community in the county to provide services. It is up to each community to decide how they want to provide EMS to their residents.

Who are your staff?

The EMS service is made up of a Chief and a Deputy Chief that handle all the administrative functions of the service. The management staff is supported by a group of highly skilled, professional, and licensed EMS providers from the area and beyond that key to the organization. These responders are assigned one of four shifts that each work 24-hour schedule.

If you or know of someone that would be a great asset to our team, please have them reach out to us. As the program builds, we will need to have more people involved in providing services to the County.

What level of EMS providers do you have?

We have the full range of providers on our staff from basic level Emergency Medical Technicians, Advanced Emergency Medical technicians up to Paramedics. Our goal is to have the best level of care taking care of a patient based on their needs. All our response staff are fully licensed EMS providers and have been vetted through our on boarding program to assure we have a high level of skilled providers.

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Contact Us

Cheshire EMS
66 Lake Street Swanzey, NH. 03446

Office: 603-355-1900