NorthStar to stop service in Red Bay
Company officials with NorthStar EMS, a private provider of emergency medical care and transportation services, met with Red Bay Mayor Bobby Forsythe last week to officially terminate their franchise agreement to provide ambulance service for the city of Red Bay effective Dec. 31.
However, due to a request by Forsythe, NEMS has agreed to extend this date until Jan. 31, 2011, in order to provide the city with more time to determine their next steps.
Jeremy Glenn, NEMS local operations manager, spoke to the city council Monday night and said that this is a decision that is being made with a heavy heart.
“This is strictly an economic decision,” Glenn said. “We have been providing ambulance service to the city of Red Bay for 12 years and I do not want NorthStar to have to leave, but we just aren’t receiving enough calls to keep the business running here.”
Glenn said that for NEMS to be able to make a profit, the Red Bay office would need to receive anywhere from 3 to 5 calls per day. In the last few years, call volume has decreased to where the office now receives an average of 1.7 calls per day.
“Red Bay Hospital used to heavily depend on us and now we’re losing calls to ambulances from Belmont and Helen Keller,” Glenn said.
“We also understand that these are hard economic times and many people don’t have jobs and don’t have insurance so instead of calling an ambulance, people will self-medicate in some situations.
“Whatever the reasoning is behind it, we just aren’t receiving enough calls to stay in business.”
According to Brent Dierking, director of business development for NEMS, the company is open to working with the city to remain their EMS provider if possible.
Glenn agreed that he is hoping that NEMS and the city can work together to find a solution before the company officially pulls out.
“We would like to work out a floating subsidy agreement with the city, but if that will not work, we’ll help the city find another ambulance provider,” Glenn said. “We will not leave the city without coverage.”
Glenn stressed that NEMS is not leaving the area completely. The Russellville office is still receiving sufficient call volume and employees affected by the move from Red Bay will be reassigned to the Russellville location.
