A Lutheran EMS ambulance is shown inside the Rochester Fire Station. Fulton County is currently working on a new contract with Lutheran EMS. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

ROCHESTER — Lutheran EMS should continue as Fulton County’s EMS provider.

Fulton County Commissioners recently agreed to chose Lutheran over several other service providers, and negotiations for the contract are going on, said Commissioners’ Vice President Rick Ranstead.

He said commissioners chose to consider more options due to Lutheran no longer staffing an ambulance in Akron.

“They pulled out and said there wasn’t enough need for an ambulance in Akron,” said Ranstead, adding Lutheran wanted an increase to bring the ambulance back.

With only several years left on the current, 10-year contract with Lutheran, the county decided to use EMS consulting firm, Ritter Strategic Services, to consider more ambulance choices.

The county had several public meetings to garner public input and put together a committee representative of the whole county to advise leaders.

The committee consisted of: Ranstead, Fulton County Council member Ron Dittman, Fulton County EMA and 911 Communications Director Gail Karas, Akron Clerk-Treasurer Rebecca Hartzler, Kewanna Town Council member Jeff Finke, Rochester Fire Department Chief Tom Butler and Woodlawn Hospital Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer Paula McKinney.

Stipulations for quotes were they were for four-year contracts and would include three ambulance sites: one in Akron, Kewanna and Rochester.

Quotes came in from Lutheran, Parkview and Heartland.

Ranstead said Parkview misunderstood what the county desired, thinking: “We wanted them to help us start an ambulance service.”

Thus leaders ruled them out.

Heartland quoted $1.35 million for each of the four years, and Lutheran quoted $0 for the first year, $400,000 for the second year, $420,000 for the third year, and $441,000 for the fourth year.

Lutheran’s lower pricing was one of the factors which caused the committee and then commissioners to pick them, said Ranstead.

Another element which helped was firefighters from departments across the county liked Lutheran, he said.

“What we found out in all of our meetings and everything was all of our volunteer fire departments loved the boots on the ground for Lutheran,” said Ranstead, noting first responders liked that Lutheran staff was already acquainted with the county.

“They worked together pretty well, so that was one of the deciding factors,” he added, referring to Lutheran EMS staff and firefighters in the county.

Ranstead said negotiations are still being finalized, “making sure everybody is satisfied with the contract.”

“We’ve … hired (law firm) Ice Miller … out of Indianapolis to help us with the contract to make sure it fits everything we need,” he said, with Fulton County Attorney Holli Shorter-Pifer and Barry Ritter with Ritter Strategic Services also looking at it.

“We look forward to working with Lutheran,” said Ranstead.