A new ambulance service will soon take over providing care to Polk County citizens as the result of a vote by the county’s commissioners last week.
Polk County will pay CareMed, a company based in Oxford, Mississippi, $720,000 a year in a four-year contract deal that can be extended for four more years in one-year increments. In return, CareMed will provide two 24-hour advanced life support (ALS) ambulances, two 12-hour ALS ambulances and a 12-hour quick response vehicle (QRV).
The decision ended the county’s long relationship with American Medical Response (AMR). But the vote was not unanimous as five commissioners from the West side of the county voted for the new service while two East side commissioners opposed it, and the third passed when the vote was taken.
The full commission board took up the decision after the ambulance service committee had met minutes before and had not arrived at a recommendation.
AMR had been asked for another 30-day extension of the current contract under the current terms, but AMR Regional Director Josh Spencer had refused, saying “we’ve kicked the can down the road for six months.”
AMR had first approached the commissioners six months ago asking for a change in the contract terms or more money to subsidize the contract.
Commissioners would later decide to put the service up for bids, and AMR agreed to accommodate the process by extending the ambulance service contract for 90 days, from the original expiration date at the end of June until the end of September.
With AMR wanting a decision and the clock ticketing, commissioners John Pippenger and Dewey Esquinance both voiced that the commissioners were having to make a decision that night.
Esquinance made a motion to award CareMed the contract under their Option 3 bid, and a discussion began over the bids from CareMed, AMR and First Call.
Commissioners had sought bids on three options:
•Option 1 - The cost to provide two ALS ambulances on each side of the county 24-hours a day, seven days a week. (This mirrors the current service provided by AMR);
•Option 2 – The cost for a performance based contract with the county subsidy being reduced when performance goals are not met; and,
•Option 3 – What would be provided for a $720,000 annual subsidy.
As the discussion began, Pippenger said, “It comes down to the money.” With that, commissioners focused on Option 3.
First Call, another bidding ambulance service, had offered two ALS ambulances on the West side of the county, one on the East side and a QRV on the East side. AMR’s proposal was to meet the county’s performance-based requirements outlines in Option 2, no matter the number of ambulances needed.
Spencer told commissioners AMR would provide whatever number of ambulances it would take to meet their needs.
He warned against locking into a contract with a specific number of ambulances saying changing circumstances could require more ambulances.
However, commissioners stuck by their opinion that a certain number of ambulances must be guaranteed.
This had, in fact, been one of the reasons the service was put out for bid when AMR has asked to reduce its contract requirement from four 24-hour ambulances to two 24-hour ambulances and two 12-hour ambulances.
Commissioners also discussed, with CareMed representatives, the possibility of moving to Option 1 for CareMed’s bid of $900.000 if the Option 3 approach was not enough.
CareMed agreed to the a possible change.
When the vote was taken, commissioners Esquinance, Pippenger, Debbie Davis, James Woody, and Greg Brooks voted for CareMed while District 3 commissioners Daniel Deal and Jeremy Kimsey voted no and Commissioner Samantha Trantham passed.