Newton County Supervisors demanded answers from LifeCare EMS Monday after firefighters, paramedics and county first responders reported ambulance response time was dangerously slow over the Thanksgiving holiday.
In a regularly scheduled meeting Monday, the Board of Supervisors heard from Jerry Johnston, chief operating officer for LifeCare EMS, whom they had invited to answer some of their questions.
“We had some problems Thanksgiving weekend with ambulances being in the county,” Board President Charles Moulds said. “We’re not going to be throwing swords. We just want some answers.”
Newton County contracts with LifeCare EMS to post three ambulances in the county, respond to calls and transport people to the hospital. Moulds said the board had some concerns about the way LifeCare was living up to their end of the deal.
At wreck at the intersection of Liberty Church Road and Whitworth Thanksgiving Day, Moulds said first responders reported it took over an hour for an ambulance to arrive.
“We have a lot of documents showing where an ambulance didn’t come,” he said. “We’ve got a whole page of them.”
Johnston said he was aware of the issues over the holiday but argued there was really nothing better LifeCare could have done. From 9:37 a.m. to 11:39 a.m., he said, Newton County received eight calls for ambulances.
“We just had a heavy call volume that day,” he said. “Scott County and Leake County came to assist with the call volume here. I’m just not sure what else we could have done.”
Newton County has a Mutual Aid agreement with Scott and Leake counties, Johnston explained. When additional ambulances are needed, the counties allow their ambulances to be dispatched to help their neighbors.
However, Newton County E911 Director Brian Taylor said LifeCare’s Mutual Aid agreements also have problems. He said they seem to be choosing other counties in their network over the ambulance that could arrive soonest.
That was evident on Thanksgiving, when Newton County responded to an accident on Little Rock Road.
“It took 40 minutes to get an ambulance there from Carthage, when Neshoba was right down the street,” he said.
Additionally, Taylor said, it was Newton County, not LifeCare that went outside the county for an ambulance in the Little Rock Road incident.
“After 13 minutes of waiting for their dispatcher to make a decision, we’re the ones who called Metro (a Meridian ambulance service),”
LifeCare is in a transition period after being bought out by a rival ambulance service, Patient Care, Johnston explained. While the new parent company is committed to maintaining and improving their standard of service, he said there were bound to be some growing pains.
However, he said, taking such a long time to respond to calls is a concern that should be addressed right away. One solution, he said, would be to add a fourth ambulance in the county.
“I don’t think you have enough ambulances here for you’re call volume,” he said. “There are many times all of our ambulances are out on 911 calls, and we can’t ignore those.”
Johnston said he would be willing to recommend adding a fourth ambulance in Newton County, at LifeCare’s expense, for several months on a trial basis. If that did indeed solve the response issue, he said the county could look at renegotiating their contract.
In the meantime, he said he would look at the issues raised by the board to see what could be done to improve the ambulance service for Newton County. LifeCare wants to provide the best service possible, but it may take some time.
“We’re looking at a variety of things to make this system a great system for Mississippi,” he said. “Give us some time to sort this out. It can’t happen overnight.”
