By Clay Bailey and Michael Erskine
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright 2007 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.
The cost of ambulance service in five Shelby County suburbs and the unincorporated areas could triple as part of an effort to improve emergency response time.
County taxpayers could pay almost $3.2 million annually — up from about $1 million — for enough ambulances and equipment to meet new criteria proposed by County Mayor A C Wharton. That’s according to a summary by Germantown Fire Chief Dennis Wolf of a meeting last week with fire chiefs, county officials and Rural/Metro Ambulance representatives.
Wharton last month asked the county’s ambulance service provider, Rural/Metro, to present an amended contract that would reduce the time for ambulances to reach emergency scenes. He called for response times under nine minutes in the suburban cities and 12 minutes in the unincorporated pockets at least 90 percent of the time.
Officials from Rural/Metro say to meet that criteria, they would provide 11 ambulances around the clock, with three more available during peak hours, according to Wolf’s report. The county would continue to dispatch ambulances, and all units would have vehicle locators installed.
The current contract, which expires in April, provides six primary ambulances and three reserves to Arlington, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington, plus the unincorporated areas. The cost is split by the local governments, based on their portion of calls. Bartlett, like Memphis, provides its own ambulance service.
Any cost increase in the contract would likely have to be shared by the governments involved, which could prove difficult.
Wharton declined comment Tuesday on the specifics of the new proposal, saying he’s not reviewed it with his top staff.
“The fire chiefs and (county public works director) Ted Fox and everybody are working. They’ve had one really productive meeting. I’m impressed with the cooperation we’re getting from everybody,” Wharton said.
Wharton said he’ll be approaching each of the municipal mayors about the suburbs paying more for ambulance service.
But the mayor said new equipment alone isn’t the solution. He said greater coordination and cooperation are also needed to improve ambulance service in Shelby County. “I’m optimistic that we’ll come up with a better system,” he said.
Wharton is scheduled to present his recommendations to the County Commission on Jan. 17. Information was obtained Tuesday through an open records request to Germantown officials. An e-mail from Wolf to city leaders indicated the county did not want the information released to the public.
Ambulance service has become a controversial issue again in recent months because of several highly publicized cases of response times reaching as many as 42 minutes. The extended times raised questions about whether Rural/Metro had enough units in the contract to answer the growing number of calls from Millington to Collierville and from Arlington to the Memphis city limits.
“We have met with the county and discussed it,” Wolf said of the contract change. “The (Germantown) staff is looking at this, among other options. As far as Germantown is concerned, all the options are still on the table.”
The contract would extend two more years with three one-year renewal options.
County Commissioner Steve Mulroy, who’s been appointed chairman of a new panel on ambulance service, said he’s not surprised that as many as 11 full-time ambulances could be needed to meet Wharton’s criteria.
Mulroy, who said he’s not seen the latest information from Rural/Metro, said he wants to study the figures and look at any other options that could be available.
“I just want to make sure we’ve explored every option to make sure this is the best price,” Mulroy said.