By Mindy Ragan Wood
Staff Writer
Piedmont residents have been frustrated by slow response times for medical emergency services, but the problem could soon be solved.
The current contract with EMSA is $66,000 and is predicted to increase even though the response times are about 25 minutes.
City Manager Jason Orr said during the council meeting he will schedule a workshop to discuss the future of emergency services in town.
“We are planning to meet to talk about the different options,” Orr said. “We’ve had lots of talks with Samaritan (Ambulance).”
The city could move to hire its own EMT and purchase one or two ambulance trucks.
“The response times are absolutely terrible,” Councilman John Brown said. “There’s been times they’ve (Piedmont Fire) called in a medi-flight, loaded them up for the hospital and EMSA isn’t even there yet. I want what’s best for the citizens and we’re not getting it.”
The idea of EMSA installing a rapid response car, not an ambulance, with an EMT stationed at the fire department “has been mentioned” Brown said but there are other options.
Samaritan Ambulance charges Yukon residents a small fee to water customers for ambulance services. Brown said that is something to consider, but creating a Piedmont ambulance service is also financially feasible.
“If we charge $5 a month on the water bill for ambulance services I think that’s probably a good deal,” he said. “But we need to look at that, if it costs as much to get them out here as it does to do our own services in-house then I think that’s what we need to do because you have a lot more control over that. The fire department is run very, very well and I have full confidence in whatever they run will be done very well.”
The city has budgeted for in-house services if it chooses to make that decision.
“We need at least two to three months to get certifications filed to be an ambulance company,” Brown said. “So if we’re going to roll out services in the next fiscal year, we need to start making decisions now.”
