Floyd still seeking EMS service contract in Polk
♦ No decision on bidding process made yet by commissioners
Floyd Healthcare Management is hoping commissioners might one day put out a bid package of what they might expect for Emergency Medical Services going forward in the county.
But it isn’t likely to be anytime soon. Vice President of Corporate and Network Services Matt Gorman was before the Polk County Commission during their July work session at the beginning of the month asking again for commissioners to approve looking into a bid package.
He mainly returned to let the commission know that he and others were available to answer questions, but when asked what a bid package might include for EMS services in Polk County run by Floyd Healthcare, wouldn’t divulge since it might give Redmond EMS a competitive advantage.
Commission Chair Jennifer Hulsey did say the county looked into the contract after Gorman’s first visit, and had County Attorney Brad McFall explain the situation. The county isn’t locked into a 10-year agreement up for renewal with Redmond EMS, but only a year-to-year contract with a minimum agreement within to renew annually for 10 years.
“This board can opt to give a notice at anytime on the anniversary date, on any year,” McFall said. “That is entirely up to the board.”
He added that notice can be given on the anniversary date of June 22 annually whenever the board wants to move forward with bidding out EMS services, if at all.
It would give the county and Redmond a year to negotiate whether the EMS service would remain in place with a new agreement, or if they would take bids and replace it.
“We’re not required to bid it out, but we can if we want to,” Hulsey summed up the situation.
Commissioner Marshelle Thaxton asked whether the county had not already moved forward in the potential for the bidding process after past discussions on EMS services.
Hulsey replied that there were discussions, but no decision to allow County Manager Matt Denton to move forward with putting together a potential bid was completed.
As it stands, the county has seven ambulances on call 24 hours a day between Redmond EMS and Floyd EMS.
Gorman explained after a question over the numbers in Polk County was raised by Commissioner Scotty Tillery that many of those ambulances are run by Redmond EMS at stations around the county.
However a few of those are Floyd EMS ambulances at their own stations, one in Rockmart and one in Cedartown.
“They’re servicing the needs of our hospital and other Floyd offices, transporting patients back and forth,” he said.
In recent days, Bartow County announced they would be going with a new ambulance provider as well. In a press release last week, Bartow officials provided information about their choice of going with Metro-Atlanta Ambulance Service. They were already providing transport to hospitals for Cobb County, and recently took over in Paulding County.