Ga. county with recent response issues hires new ambulance service

By Megan Matteucci
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County has hired an ambulance company to provide temporary service, but commissioners said they haven’t seen any justification of why the current contractor is being terminated.

On Tuesday, the county hired Colorado-based American Medical Response to provide service from July 6 to Jan. 11. There will be no cost to the county because patients will pay for all ambulance fees, a county spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, the County Commission’s public safety committee said it wants an independent audit of the 911 system.

“I want a report of what’s really going on,” said Commissioner Sharon Barnes Sutton, chairwoman of the public safety committee. “There are just too many questions.”

Care Ambulance requested the audit last week after the county terminated its contract. Public Safety Director William “Wiz” Miller terminated Care effective July 5.

Miller later said Care, which had a contract set to run until March, had delayed responses to three calls. However, he has identified only one: a 22-minute response to a teenage soccer player with a head injury. Care has said it was given the wrong address, and the county has disciplined three dispatchers.

On Tuesday, Miller told commissioners he didn’t have information on the other incidents. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also requested this information last week.

Commissioner Lee May said he is disappointed county officials won’t explain why the contract was terminated.

“People are going to drop the ball and mess up. We get that. But we want an opportunity to allow them to address that,” he said. |

Doug Tisdale, a vice president for Care, said he also did not receive any complaints from the county other than the injured soccer player.

Three DeKalb dispatchers have been disciplined in response to 911 complaints. County records obtained by the AJC show Meya Lowe and Randy Bosier were each suspended one day for not putting all the information into the system about the injured soccer player. Shawn Toombs was suspended one day for not giving all information from the 911 caller to the dispatcher.

Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution