Tempers flared as Gold Cross EMS supporters drilled for answers during a Wednesday meeting of the Augusta Commission.
Negotiations have begun with Central EMS, the Roswell ambulance company that won a state procurement to be Augusta’s provider, officials said Wednesday. But the firm’s price tag, which some commissioners want to know up front, remains elusive.
The need for an emergency procurement of emergency medical dispatch software, discussed at length during a recent public EMS subcommittee meeting, vexed several on the panel. Commissioner Sean Frantom said he needed to know the “why” behind the purchase.
“Augusta has plans to dispatch our own medical calls, and as a result of Gold Cross terminating service, Augusta would not have the ability to help our visitors as well as our residents,” said Interim Administrator Takiyah Douse, who chairs the subcommittee.
Currently all Augusta 911 EMS calls are routed to a separate Gold Cross dispatch, used by the Martinez company to service several counties.
Douse said she invited Dr. Becky Abell, the Augusta University emergency medicine physician who serves on the city EMS subcommittee, to explain the need for the software.
Abell said the 911 dispatcher is “the first of the first responders” in an emergency medical call. The software guides dispatchers through the standardized delivery of care that can be measured and monitored by doctors, she said.
Commissioner Bobby Williams interjected a rationale for Frantom’s question.
“This is the Gold Cross bull-crap,” he said, gradually increasing his tone of voice as Frantom offered “clarity” until Mayor Garnett Johnson called for order. Frantom got the last word. “You need help,” he said.
Commissioner Brandon Garrett said he couldn’t understand why Augusta did not already have the software, which Commissioner Wayne Guilfoyle said Douse “took it upon herself” to procure.
Guilfoyle said if negotiations fail with Central and Augusta must revert to Gold Cross, the $130,000 spent on it will be wasted.
“The software is not a waste of money,” Abell said. “At the end of the day, Augusta needs to take back its dispatch. We need to have ownership of this, we need to have transparency of this, the numbers, the patients, the data, the response time, the scene time, so we can look at our morbidity, our mortality of things like STEMI and stroke and trauma and we can impact those in the community that need it the most.”
“If it was that important, we should have had it in place prior,” Guilfoyle said.
Central CEO Gary Coker has repeatedly said having Augusta dispatch the ambulances as well as house them at Augusta fire stations will reduce the subsidy amount it charges, in addition to shaving minutes off response times.
To Commissioner Alvin Mason’s questions, Augusta 911 Director Daniel Dunlap said Augusta’s approximately 50 employees are already trained and certified in the software.
But with Gold Cross handling the ambulance dispatch portion of the call, none have used it in a real Augusta medical emergency, he said. In addition, the software is unlikely to be in place April 22, and dispatchers will have to use “flip chart protocols” in the meantime, he said.
Frantom said Central needs to present a price tag. “I’m going to just cut straight to the chase,” he said. “Why is it taking so long?”
Coker attributed the delay to a shortage of ambulance response data, as he has previously. Augusta doesn’t have the data “because your 911 center does not control all the calls,” he said.
The transfer to Gold Cross dispatch adds 60-90 seconds to each call. “Your dispatch center should be doing it,” he said.
Coker said Central just received a contract from the city that their legal and financial teams are reviewing to determine a cost.
“Yes, we want the number to be completely right, and that’s why we’re putting so much time in it,” he said. “We’ve got to live with that for quite a while.”
As the questions continued, Commissioner Jordan Johnson asked the commission to “remember our commitment to stay out of the way on negotiations… Every time we get involved in something we’re not experts in, we mess it up.”
Garrett asked Coker if Central wasn’t required to provide the eight ambulances it specified in its bid for the EMS zone. “Don’t you have to at least do what you told the state you would do?”
“Yes, and no,” he said. “The yes is, that’s how we applied for the zone. They also asked us if we’d be willing to stick to that commitment if your board decided to give us a zero subsidy. And the answer was no.”
