By Patrick Sloan-Turner
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — For decades, Acadian Ambulance has provided the lion’s share of ambulance services not handled by East Baton Rouge’s own Emergency Medical Services, transporting patients from facilities like hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living centers and more in the parish.
But now, Mayor-President Sid Edwards has opened the door for a competitor, allowing Baton Rouge General to enter the market.
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“We are excited about the opportunity to better support patients in Baton Rouge and help ensure they get where they need to go quickly,” said Meghan Parrish , Vice President of Marketing and Communications.
Edwards made the decision over protests from Acadian, which argues city-parish ordinances require the mayor to consider “whether the public convenience and necessity require,” a new ambulance service.
“We definitely did not like the way it was done, because it did not follow the ordinance,” said Acadian Director of Operations Porter Taylor.
Still, Taylor added that the company is “not interested in making it messy.”
Officials in Edwards’ administration have acknowledged potential problems with how the new service was approved. They point out that an initial approval was granted before he took office.
“Based on the information that was discovered from the previous administration, the city’s ordinances were not followed,” said city-parish spokesperson Falon Brown.
Yet Edwards ultimately granted BRG’s request, citing “the purpose of competition.”
Edwards’ team declined to comment on whether a need for another operator existed or how that might be determined.
Concerns about the process
The change began last year, under former Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s administration. On Dec. 26, days before she left office, Broome sent a letter to BRG allowing them to provide ambulance service, writing that “a need exists within the parish,” documents show.
About a month later, after Edwards moved into City Hall, Deputy Parish Attorney Courtney Humphrey sent a Jan. 28 letter to BRG’s leaders saying Broome’s decision didn’t follow the rules.
Emails obtained through a public records request show BRG officials urging Edwards’s administration to reject the attorney’s interpretation. But they also show Acadian Ambulance pressing to stand by it.
“I urge you to ensure that all relevant written ordinances and processes to determine whether in fact a need for additional services exists, are followed,” Taylor wrote to Edwards’ chief of staff, Lon Vicknair on July 2.
According to Taylor and Acadian, no need for an additional provider exists.
… it appears that Baton Rouge General’s intentions are self-serving,” he wrote. “To my knowledge, there have been no other health care entities in this parish that have expressed a need for additional ambulance services, including your own municipal EMS.”
On July 14, Edwards issued a letter to BRG granting a request to apply for an ambulance service for nonemergency calls and emergencies when requested by city-parish EMS.
Avoiding ‘something messy’
On Monday, Porter called BRG “friends” of Acadian Ambulance and said leadership from both will meet soon to figure out how to coexist.
He said he understands why Edwards made the decision he did, though he still said it was “tough to swallow.”
“He’s going to work with Baton Rouge General because he has to,” he said.
Porter said he thinks Edwards had to honor the Broome administration’s decision from December to avoid “something messy” from BRG..
“Because of the conflict of how things went down between the two administrations, you know, Mayor Edwards said, ‘Look, what the previous administration did, I can’t really undo without causing a mess,’” Porter said.
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