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Mich. ambulance contract, policies raise questions

Battle rages between closest service vs. guaranteed service; rising call times attributed to where responders wait between calls

By Dana DeFever
MLive

LINDEN, Mich. — It’s a question of life or death: How fast can you get help.

And, in Linden, it is a question some city officials are worrying about after their contracted ambulance provider got nudged out of most calls by a half-mile.

City officials have argued response times are going up by routing calls to Mobile Medical Response — the new, closer ambulance company — because its drivers wait for calls in an office upstairs from a local business, while the contracted company STAT EMS keeps its emergency personnel stationed in rigs and ready to respond.

Full story: Ambulance contract, policies raise questions in Linden over guaranteed service or closest service