County's Motion for Relief Against Ambulance Service Denied

Judge James Eder Thursday ruled against Effingham County's request for emergency temporary relief against Lakeside EMS.

The County Board had asked that Lakeside be prohibited from performing ambulance transfer calls. 

Now, the County will consider whether they want to pursue a temporary or permanent injunction against Lakeside operating in the county. A telephone conference call between attorneys for both parties was scheduled for the morning of September 26.

The County Board directed State's Attorney Bryan Kibler to seek the request for relief after Lakeside began handling calls in the county since beginning operation on July 16. The ambulance service, owned by Jerrod Estes, has one ambulance unit and is based in Sigel, outside Effingham County.

In arguing for the relief, Kibler contended that the County has an ambulance ordinance that establishes Abbott EMS as the county's ambulance provider for emergency calls. Kibler argued that the county could suffer irreparable harm since Abbott could sue the County if it loses calls to other ambulance services. He also argued for the emergency relief since it could take a while to litigate violations of the ambulance ordinance. He also contended that the ambulance ordinance is clear that a ground ambulance can't advertise, operate or locate in the county. He said state statute provides that a County Board can limit the number of ambulance services in a county and that's where the County can require services to obtain a letter of authorization before they could operate here.

Lakeside EMS' counsel, Charles Philbrick, contended that the definition of emergency calls in the ambulance ordinance excludes transfer calls, and that Lakeside has only handled transfer calls. Philbrick said Abbott couldn't sue the County for failing to enforce its ordinance since the contract with Abbott only addresses emergency service. He also noted that 22 other ambulance agencies bring customers to HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital or take them from the hospital to other locations and wondered why Lakeside was being singled out in this action?

Philbrick contended that a lack of ambulance service providers could prove costly in more than dollars. He alleged a call the evening of August 15 from the hospital to Lakeside. Abbott's rigs were on other calls outside the area, so Lakeside transferred a heart attack victim to Springfield for services not available locally. Philbrick stated that patient would likely be dead if the emergency relief sought by the County was in place. He said his remarks were not an indictment of another service since they were providing care elsewhere, just an indication that multiple services proved beneficial.

There were also complaints that Lakeside's advertising of its services, a "guerrilla marketing campaign", Kibler alleged, has been much more aggressive than the other services coming in and out of the county, and that the County has the right to regulate the number of services in the county.

In response, Philbrick said there was nothing to show Lakeside's service has been deficient, and that patients have the right to choose their ambulance service.

In denying the County's request, Judge Eder wondered whether the County has the right to regulate ambulance services beyond emergency services, and said he saw no particular or immediate need for the temporary emergency relief sought by the County.

Now, it will be up to the County Board whether they want to pursue or drop the matter of a temporary or permanent injunction against Lakeside operating in the county.

In the meantime, Philbrick told his clients to continue providing the same services they've been providing.

The County Board had the matter of granting Lakeside a letter of authorization to operate in Effingham County on Monday's board meeting agenda, but took no action because Thursday's hearing was pending.