By Todd South
Chattanooga Times Free Press
DALTON, Ga. — Hutcheson Medical Center ambulance employees now have a place to go after the hospital announced it would no longer offer ambulance services in Dade, Walker and Catoosa counties.
The Northwest Georgia Emergency Medical Services Council executive committee approved a plan Thursday that allows each of the three counties to take over as the licensed emergency transport provider for their areas, previously held by Hutcheson Medical Center.
Steve Lawson, an ambulance worker with Hutcheson, said the decision was welcome relief for many emergency workers who didn’t know where they would work after Dec. 31, the end of the hospital’s ambulance service.
Mr. Lawson said Hutcheson’s decision to end services circulated as a rumor among the 80 ambulance workers at the hospital about three months ago. The official announcement came in October, he said.
“I was very disappointed,” he said. The announcement was “very distressing” and raised the anxiety of the hospital’s emergency worker staff.
Some left for jobs in other states, a major concern for David Ashburn, director of Walker County Emergency Services.
Mr. Ashburn said the quick actions of county governments, the council and emergency services prevented the area losing the “medical base” of the community.
The new arrangement will actually double services in the three counties, Mr. Ashburn said in the meeting.
“We’re getting more trucks in the three counties than we’ve ever had before,” he said. He laid out plans for each county to the committee, detailing locations of ambulances and the contracted providers.
Lifeguard EMS will cover ambulance services for Dade County, Catoosa County will use Angel Medical Services and Walker County will run most of their ambulances through Walker County Emergency Services.
Catoosa County will continue to pay about $150,000 a year for services through Angel and Dade County will pay about $100,000 for services from Lifeguard, Mr. Ashburn said.
Walker County will work emergency-only calls and pay for services through ambulance collections, reducing the county’s previous $157,000 annual price tag on emergency calls, he said.
Walker County will have eight emergency vehicles compared to the current four ambulances.
Using $1.2 million out of the estimated $3.5 million from the recently approved Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, the county plans to outfit three rapid response firetrucks for emergency transport and pay for ambulances in the county, Mr. Ashburn said.