Habersham County is combining its EMS and Fire Services into one department.
The county signed an agreement with the Habersham Medical Center Authority Board this week. Under the agreement the county will assume full control of Emergency Medical Services.
The change takes effect March 5.
“This change will allow cross-training among fire and EMS personnel and will strategically position personnel and equipment to improve responsiveness to all emergency calls,” says Habersham County Manager Phil Sutton.
Reorganization and funding
EMS workers are on the hospital payroll. After the merger, those employees will become county employees. They include 36 paramedics, 12 Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), and two Community Paramedicine personnel.
Habersham County Commission Chair Victor Anderson calls the move a “win-win.” Although the county is adding 50 new employees to its payroll, he says there will be no net change in cost to taxpayers.
“Under the terms of the contract with the hospital, the county has been paying the difference between actual operating expenses and collected revenue from day one,” he explains. “What will change is the method and service for billing and collections.”
The county is now looking for someone to handle its Ambulance/EMS billing.
“The initial indication is that we stand to have a better collection rate as well as reduced expenses by using a third party vendor who specializes in this,” says Anderson.
EMS generates about 80% of its operating revenue. “The annual operating costs of EMS are budgeted at $397,853 before and after this merger,” says Sutton. “The remaining revenue used to pay expense is from $1,887,298 in net ambulance charges to users.”
Enhanced training and response time
Training costs will be minimized by the fact some employees in the new department are already cross-trained, according to Anderson. The county will use existing budgeted funds for future training.
In addition, the county will use existing facilities to house its new personnel and equipment.
“One of the benefits of this transition is that it will allow us to strategically place equipment and personnel throughout the county to provide better, faster response time and place expensive equipment in existing fire houses that have space,” he explains. “We have inventoried and determined that we can house all the equipment in current facilities without having to construct or add on.”
Transition team
The Habersham Medical Center Authority Board has run EMS since 1974. The merger will allow the hospital “to expand their services and focus on their core business,” says Anderson.
“With this merger, the residents and visitors of Habersham County will be positively impacted by a more efficient and effective emergency services organization,” says Habersham Medical Center CEO Lynn Boggs.
EMS director Chad Black will serve as Habersham Emergency Services Director. Habersham Fire Chief Jeff Cain will fill a dual role as Fire Chief and Assistant Emergency Services Director. Together the two will lead the transition to combine EMS and Fire Services into a unified county government department.
