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T'ville council mulls fate of ambulances "You will not have to worry at any time about not having service," Tony Tilton, operations supervisor with Jets Ambulance Service, told the Thomasville City Council Monday night. The concern about the possible loss of one of the county's ambulance services was discussed Monday during the work session and the regular meeting of the Thomasville City Council. "We have offered coverage in the past. We will be more than happy to provide coverage for the future for 911 as well as transfers coming out of Southwest Medical Center." The Jackson-based Jets will not leave the area and the Thomasville community without service, Tilton said. Citing a recent article in The Thomasville Times, "LifeLine (Paramedics, an ambulance service) has informed us, and the general public, that they are struggling," said Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day. 'They do not know if they are going to be able to continue operations in the near future," he said of the Thomasville-based service. Two meetings ago, the council had voted to revise the fiscal 2008 budget to provide $25,000 to the city Healthcare Authority to use in a potential contractual agreement for ambulance services. The authority has previously met with LifeLine and was expect- ed to meet with Jets on Tuesday, Day said. The mayor released a statement from the healthcare authority during Monday's work session. "The Thomasville Healthcare Authority has met several times with various entities in an attempt to assist in the development of a permanent solution to the sensitive issue of ambulance care for the citizens of Thomasville," the statement read. "While we are aware that LifeLine Paramedics is a private business, we are still concerned about the immediate need for emergency transport and response to 911 calls in the Thomasville area. "In an attempt to explore all possible options, we have another meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 11, 2008, and hope to be able to present our temporary recommendations following this meeting. Any permanent recommendations would be done following an independent evaluation of financial records which has been proposed by the county EMA (Emergency Management Authority) office." Representatives from all the municipalities and all three hospitals, two county commissioners, and both ambulance services met five weeks ago with Roy Waite, county EMA director, to find a solution, Day said. "Everybody in that room…agreed to a study of financials of both services." An independent auditor, familiar with the healthcare business, would be hired. The Clarke Mobile Gas District is paying $5,000 for the study. Regarding a long term solution, "we've got to find out what is the level of care we expect, what does that cost, and the difference between what that costs and what can be collected. We need to look at the expenses of each ambulance service and figure out what is a reasonable contract/subsidy for indigent services." The ambulance services are seeing up to 90 percent indigent calls with E-911, Day said. "They get virtually no pay for them." "(However) when you look at the numbers we have been given and the numbers we asked for (from LifeLine), they are numbers that are extremely high. We're talking $180,000 a year and $15,000 a month they say for them to continue to operate. "For a comparison, Washington County doesn't pay that much for their whole countywide service," Day said. The city of Thomasville will have to look at all its options. However, "we definitely don't want to be in the ambulance business," the mayor said. The municipalities had previously discussed possible financial assistance, but the ambulance services were told "we're not going to pay for you to compete with each other." Both the Jets and the LifeLine services agreed to having the county territories divided, beginning on Feb. 13. Coffeeville, Jackson and Grove Hill is in Jets territory, and Fulton and Thomasville are under LifeLine. No matter what happens with LifeLine and even if Jets takes over the whole county, the City of Thomasville will have to subsidize an ambulance service which has a vehicle on call 24/7 at a station in the city, Day said. "They make their money off of transfers. If those trucks are not running back and forth from Mobile, and if they have to turn down a transfer to keep a truck in town to cover Thomasville, then that costs money." Thomasville and Grove Hill have had the luxury over the last few years of having two ambulance services, Day said. "Other areas of the county didn't have that luxury.
"It made it easier to get an ambulance quicker."
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