By Andrew Harp
The Evening News and the Tribune
JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. 鈥� The Clark County Commissioners have reached a semi-permanent solution to EMS in the county.
A three-year contract has been approved with Muncie-based Heartland Ambulance Service which was originally hired in August for three months, and then an extension was made to discuss this longer-term contract.
Heartland was hired by the county after it ended its agreement with New Chapel EMS once it was determined New Chapel was unable to fulfill the obligations of its contract once it lost staff members.
Former Clark County Sheriff Jamey Noel, who is currently serving a 15-year sentence for multiple felonies including theft and tax evasion, used to be the CEO of New Chapel EMS. Staff members were shed after the company鈥檚 contract with Floyd County was not renewed earlier this year.
The company has now renamed itself Phoenix Ambulance and is only doing inter-facility ambulance runs.
Commissioners President Bryan Glover said at a workshop session with the Clark County Council on Monday that Heartland has improved ambulance runtimes by eight to 10 minutes.
Josh Keywood, director of operations at Heartland, said that it uses system status management, which spreads out ambulances across the county in areas where the run volume is high and shift if need be.
鈥淚t (runtimes) will continue to improve as we gather more data and learn more about the county,鈥� he said.
This contract is $3,024,000 for 2025, $3,114,720 for 2026 and $3,208,164 for 2027, and includes four 24/7 advanced life-support ambulances, three 24/7 basic life-support ambulances and one ALS unit operational Monday through Friday for 12 hours.
This is an increase of the seven Heartland vehicles operating in the county to eight.
The contract, however, does have a special clause in which the county can give a 120-day notice to Heartland to opt out of it. This is because a local EMS subcommittee has been working to find an even longer-term solution to EMS in the county.
Keywood said they have around 24 contract employees who traveled from all over the country and 20 local employees.
He said they are currently looking for a station for their contracted employees to stay since they鈥檙e currently living in a hotel. He also said that they are actively hiring local paramedics and EMTs and intend to work with the county to facilitate more local training for these jobs.
鈥淲e鈥檒l really start integrating with the community now that we鈥檙e going to be here long term,鈥� he said.
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