Fiscally, the sole ambulance authority that covers five municipalities and 64 square miles of Allegheny County walks on soft cement.
At least, that’s how Chief Chris Dell describes it. He took the helm at McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority, or MFPAA, in 2022, when the threat of disbandment was looming even more prominently over the EMS system than it is now.
Since then, Chief Dell has implemented cost-cutting measures, applied for numerous grants, and the ambulance authority has even earned national accreditation, the gold standard for first responders that less than 1% of EMS agencies earn nationwide.