By Asia Simone Burns
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to continue working with the same ambulance provider they’ve contracted with for more than a decade.
The commissioners unanimously voted to award American Medical Response a new five-year contract to serve as the primary emergency transportation service for the county. The contract includes a roughly $77 million subsidy over the course of the five years.
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The ambulance company has for years faced criticism over its response times, which local leaders and DeKalb residents say have been too slow and not acceptable during medical emergencies.
But the board is hopeful the terms of the new agreement — and the multimillion-dollar investment to increase ambulance resources — will help turn things around.
AMR has been DeKalb’s ambulance provider since 2013. Residents and leaders have complained of the company’s lagging response times for nearly as long.
AMR’s travel time in 2023 was 23 minutes or less in 90% of serious calls, according to a review of the county’s ambulance service published last year by consulting firm Fitch & Associates. That didn’t come close to the standard recommended by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, which says ambulance travel time should be approximately 5 minutes or less in 90% of calls, according to the Fitch study.
During the same period, DeKalb County Fire Rescue’s travel time to medical emergencies was 9.1 minutes or less in 90% of calls, according to Fitch’s study. The county’s goal for response times is less than 11 minutes for the most serious calls and less than 15 minutes for calls that require rapid intervention, such as continuous seizures and falls that result in injuries.
A county bid evaluation committee, which included DeKalb County Fire Rescue Chief Darnell Fullum, rated AMR the top choice among four private ambulance contractors that submitted proposals earlier this year.
Fullum previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that AMR has been a cooperative partner with the county despite the issues it has faced.
“Throughout this process, the one thing that I can say is that AMR has stayed at the table and has worked with us to improve this system,” he said. “Through that process, that gave me the belief that they were capable of being within the proposal process.”
In February 2024, the county invested $3.8 million into DeKalb County Fire Rescue’s ambulance program to bolster service throughout the county. At the same time, it extended its contract with AMR through June 2026 and added a $4.89 million subsidy to increase the number of AMR ambulances in service.
The county reported in June that those efforts had helped slash response times by nearly 3 minutes.
Commissioners approved the new agreement with AMR on Tuesday at their regular meeting without any discussion about the contract.
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