Augusta approves $2.65 million contract with Central EMS. Here are the terms

Miguel Legoas, Augusta Chronicle
Updated ·3 min read
A Central EMS ambulance sits outside the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building on March 9.
A Central EMS ambulance sits outside the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building on March 9.

After more than a month of discussion and speculation, Augusta now has a contract in place with its ambulance provider.

The Augusta Commission approved a $2.65 million contract with Central EMS Tuesday.

This is a five-year contract in which Augusta will pay the subsidy in equal monthly installments. However, Augusta’s City Administrator Takiyah Douse said they will only have to pay eight months of subsidy this year, which would cost about a $1.76 million total.

Historic Building Preservation: Augusta's 19th century Trinity CME Church was moved in 2018. What has happened since?

New School Facilities: Whether its theater or game play, Hephzibah High's new facilities are ready to perform

In exchange, Central will provide and manage the day-to-day operations of Augusta's EMS services, including eight to 14 dedicated ambulances and three paramedic level quick response vehicles (QRVs). The exact number of ambulances in service will fluctuate as needed.

The dispatch units will potentially be housed in Augusta's fire stations 24/7 in return for "house dues" from Central EMS of $350 per month, per location.

The contract establishes response time standards and accountability, something that was highly sought after during the negotiations with Gold Cross EMS earlier this year. Each type of call has been given a designation with "Echo" and "Delta" being life threatening emergencies, "Charlie" is non-life threatening emergencies, and non-emergency calls are designated "Alpha," "Bravo" and "Omega." The standards are as follows:

  • Report to Echo/Delta calls in less than 12 minutes for urban areas and less than 15 minutes for rural areas.

  • Report to Charlie calls in less than 15 minutes for urban areas and less than 20 minutes for rural areas.

  • Report to Alpha/Bravo/Omega calls in less than 30 minutes for urban areas and less than 31 minutes for rural areas.

The urban zone is considered the area north of Willis Foreman and Brown roads. These standards should be met for 90% of calls and will be measured in seconds, not whole minutes. Each instance where the standard is not met will be reported and reviewed quarterly. After an interim "Discovery Period" of 150 days, Central EMS will be fined $2,000 during each quarter it fails to meet the standard.

Transparency was another concern for Augusta's leaders, and has been taken into consideration under the terms. Central EMS is now required to make several regular reports to Augusta on a variety of subjects transportation and hospital times to customer complaints and staffing rosters. The city is also being given unrestricted access to a vehicle locater system showing units' locations in real time.

Central has been running Augusta's emergency response services unpaid since April 2 after Gold Cross suddenly informed the city on April 1 that it would terminate its temporary services the next morning. This closed the book on Augusta's 17-year partnership, with the final chapter starting in January when negotiations over a new contract dissolved and Gold Cross relinquished its control over Augusta's EMS zone.

Gold Cross agreed to continue providing services under a month-to-month contract until a new zone provider could take over. Georgia Department of Public Health named Central as the new provider in March.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Augusta, Central EMS approve contract for ambulance services