News

Decatur, Ala. to Retain 2 Ambulance Services

Tiffeny Owens

07/26/2012

July 26--Decatur residents needing emergency medical attention have been getting it faster this month with two ambulance services rotating calls, the city's interim fire chief said.

For now, the city will retain ambulance providers Decatur Emergency Medical Services and First Response EMS, interim Fire Chief Darwin Clark said Wednesday.

"We've seen a minute-and-a-half reduction in response times," he said. "We also consistently have more ambulances available at any given time to take calls, which has helped reduce the number of medical calls the fire department has to respond to."

The city has requirements in place to dispatch calls based on the closest available ambulance so that calls are distributed fairly between the providers. However, a hearing in Morgan County Circuit Court next month could stop First Response from taking calls.

Decatur Emergency Medical Services filed an emergency injunction against the city and First Response last month to prevent the company from operating. It claimed the city was violating its own EMS ordinance and cited the history of First Response's director, David Childers, illegally transporting Decatur patients with his other ambulance company, Med-Call.

Until the City Council this year reversed the long-standing policy of allowing one ambulance provider, DEMSI had fended off other competitors, including Childers, since 1998. Childers has unsuccessfully sued the city to operate.

Circuit Judge Sherrie Paler will hear DEMSI's case Aug. 26 and determine if DEMSI's claims have merit, Assistant City Attorney Chip Alexander said.

There also has been some issues with DEMSI.

Until July 17, DEMSI had not agreed to roll its calls over to the Morgan County E-911 Center for dispatch, Clark said. It also hadn't made a few of its ambulances available for city inspection, per requirements.

"They signed the contract with the 911 call center (for the agency to dispatch calls) and then decided not to use those ambulances that were to be inspected," Clark said. "It was a bit of a miscommunication between them and the city because the city thought those backup ambulances were going to be on the streets, so they had to be inspected. We didn't know that DEMSI had decided not to use them."

Resolving those issues brought DEMSI into compliance, he said.

"Everything is working as one system now," said Ryan Welty, E-911 Center director. "Now when we get a call, the dispatcher clicks on the recommended unit, and the computer calculates the closest available ambulance to the scene."

The goal is to transport patients to the hospital within eight minutes. Last year, the average response time for category 1 calls -- the most life-threatening -- was 7 minutes and 35 seconds, Welty said.

"That time is down to 6 minutes and 5 seconds," he said. "In 2011, we had four advanced life-support ambulances, and now we have six available to take calls."

Decatur's EMS committee will meet today to go over both ambulance service's quarterly reports, Clark said. Had DEMSI not complied with the new rules by today, the committee could have recommended to the City Council that its license be suspended.

"Thankfully, we have no reason to discuss anything like that," Clark said.

The committee will consider EMS coordinator Lt. Jason Jones' recommendations to require certain equipment be onboard ambulances and that DEMSI and First Response be the only providers that transport patients leaving Decatur hospitals.