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Ladson ambulance company owner honored in D.C.
By RACHEL PLEASANT
Contributing Writer
Cindy Burbage can’t hide the excitement in her voice. But it’s understandable, considering Burbage, owner and chief executive officer of Ladson-based American Heritage Ambulance, just returned from Washington, D.C., where she heard President George W. Bush speak and received an award for her work as a small business owner.
Burbage was one of several hundred small business owners, and the only one from the Charleston area, recognized by the National Republican Congressional Committee at its tax summit and dinner March 15 at the Washington Hilton & Towers.
President Bush attended the event and spoke about the upcoming Afghan elections, Social Security reform and affordable health care benefits for small businesses.
“I feel very honored to have been there,” Burbage says. “I didn’t get to shake his hand, but even so, how many people get to sit in a room with the president?”
Burbage, 40, a Native American belonging to the Sappony Tribe, received her award for serving on an NRCC advisory committee, sharing her thoughts and opinions on tax and social security reform and education.
“These are people who’ve assisted the NRCC in some way or form,” says Alex Burgos, NRCC spokesman, of Burbage and her fellow award recipients.
Born in North Carolina, Burbage is a registered nurse and holds bachelor’s degrees in science, marketing and business.
After working in hospitals and physicians’ offices, her career path took her into the world of executive management and marketing, working as director of the American Red Cross Blood Services’ Southeast Region for three years.
She eventually took a position with Rural Metro Ambulance and soon became director of that company.
In February 2004, acting on a lifelong desire to own a business, she bought EMS Ventures of South Carolina, which was doing business as Rural Metro Ambulance—the very company she’d directed for three years.
Burbage changed the company’s name to American Heritage, a name she felt reflected her Native American roots, and got to work.
Since she purchased the company, Burbage has added nine employees, for a total of 89. American Heritage now answers 13,000 calls per year—up by about 250 calls—and services all of the Lowcountry up to Columbia.
The company operates 19 ambulances and three wheelchair vans and has a contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs to handle transportation for patients out of Charleston.
American Heritage regularly performs long-distance transportation, traveling as far away as New York City. The company’s annual revenue tops $3 million.
Owning a business was something Burbage had always dreamed of doing, but with time she’s realized the title “president and CEO” comes with many struggles and worries.
“It’s been very challenging,” Burbage says, adding that for several months she operated the business solely on capital because many of her customers rely on Medicare and Medicaid and it took time to arrange payments from those programs.
Adding to her struggles is the fact that paramedics are in short supply.
“It’s a daily challenge,” Burbage says. “You have to provide payroll but also benefits because everyone is competing for good EMTs and paramedics.”
Still, Burbage says, owning a business comes with an incredible sense of fulfillment.
She looks forward to growing the business even larger and taking it to her home state of North Carolina.
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