Three Bids Received for County Ambulance Service

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Published on September 14 2021 4:21 pm
Last Updated on September 15 2021 9:14 am
Written by Greg Sapp

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Three ambulance services have submitted proposals to provide emergency ambulance service in Effingham County.

Tuesday was the deadline to submit a proposal. The proposals were received from the current vendor, Abbott EMS, as well as from Rural Med and from Lakeside EMS. All three services work in Effingham County. 

The proposals were not opened at Tuesday's meeting. Effingham County Ambulance Oversight Committee Chairman Rob Arnold said it was stated in the information for the vendors that the bids would not be opened at the meeting.

Arnold said the committee members will meet to review the proposals and will present their recommendations to the Effingham County Board at their October 18 meeting, when the contract is expected to be awarded.

Abbott's contract with the County does not expire until Spring 2022, but Arnold has said often that the goal is to have a contract in place early to make for an orderly transition should there be a change in vendor.

Also Tuesday, the Ambulance Oversight Committee a couple of ambulance calls where there were questions as to how they were handled. There was also a question as to how many ambulance units were available on one call. It was agreed that a supervisor truck available alone would be a Status Zero incident, but a BLS unit available would not be a Status Zero. BLS is a Basic Life Support unit, while an ALS is an Advanced Life Support unit.