The Newton County Board of Supervisors have a consensus on what it wants to charge CareMed EMS if they are unable to provide three advanced life support ambulances during a 24-hour period.
During its regular board meeting Nov. 18, all five supervisors agreed informally that they would charge CareMed $100 per day per truck it is under its minimum of three ALS ambulances. Currently, there is no penalty for CareMed if they do not provide three ALS ambulances 24 hours a day.
Board attorney Jason Mangum said that the penalty would be incurred if CareMed had less than its three ALS trucks for a 24-hour period.
“The reason we went with a 24-hour period is because their paramedics work on either 24 or 48-hour shifts,” Mangum said. “That would mean they would have been short at least one ALS truck for an entire shift. Then they would be penalized $100 per truck for that 24-hour period.”
Mangum also said that this addendum in the contract would reinforce that the county wants to have three ALS trucks available, not just ambulances that could be a mixture of basic life support and ALS.
The revised contract has now been sent to CareMed for approval. If they agree on the terms, the contract could be approved at an upcoming meeting. The next meeting date will be Dec. 6 at 10 a.m.
The reason for the revision in the contract stems from a period this summer when CareMed had staffing issues and was having to send ambulances from other counties to cover calls, some of which were calls in life-threatening situations.
CareMed officials met with the board and agreed to negotiate a contract revision that would penalize the company if they did not service the county with three ALS trucks. Since July, 911 director Alyssa Middleton has reported to the board of supervisors how many trucks were available each day.
Since the reporting started, the county has had most days with three fully-staffed ALS trucks. On the days when they don’t three available, CareMed has supplemented with BLS trucks. There have been only a few days where there were less than three ambulances available.
Other discussions with CareMed have also included the possibility of moving all three ambulances to one centralized location. It has not been discussed whether that will be added to the contract.
In other business, the county:
• Heard from a William Tune who was representing his mother about servicing a quarter-mile former county road near the end of Hudson Chapel Church Road.
• Approved a resolution and memorandum of understanding to receive $166,924 with the opioid lawsuit settlement.
• Also heard that the alligator snapping turtle is possibly going to be classified an endangered species.
• Changed its second meeting date to Monday, Dec. 13 at 9 a.m.
• Learned that the Town of Hickory is interested in a garbage truck that will be replaced with a new truck. The Supervisors advised the town to come up with a price, and they will take it under advisement.
• Approved a lease-purchase agreement for $275,425, a state bid price, on three Motorola MCC 7500E dispatching consoles using American Recovery Act funding. These consoles would also be tied in via fiber optic cable into the MSWIN system vs. the current wireless connection. Currently, the county still owes $175,842 in debt service on the current system. However, county fire coordinator Brian Taylor said the ARA money can’t be used to pay this off. Before the consoles can be purchased, the Mississippi State Wireless Commission will still have to approve the county to tie in directly to the MSWIN system. He also suggested purchasing upgrades for software using the ARA money as well.
