Amite County officials declared a state of emergency Wednesday after being notified that ambulance service provider EmergyStat would close its doors at midnight.
The shutdown, which Mississippi State Department of Health Officials said was due to “lack of liability insurance and serious financial problems” with the company, threatened ambulance service in 23 counties around the state, and left officials in Amite and Wilkinson counties scrambling for a Plan B.
Ambulance service in the county is now being volunteered by AAA Ambulance Service. AAA is the primary ambulance service provider for Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center, which already served Amite County districts No. 4 and 5 under an agreement with the hospital.
“Citizens don’t need to be alarmed,” said Sam Walsh, Amite County emergency management and fire services director. “We are covered with a fine quality ambulance service, and the supervisors are working on a long-term plan.”
Walsh said Amite County officials had been looking into alternatives for more than a month, seeing a potential issue with EmergyStat coming but didn’t expect it to happen so quickly.
Supervisors Dale Sterling, Travis Taylor and Jackie Wittington convened at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday to sign the emergency declaration, which Walsh said allows the county to mobilize other resources, from military help to reimbursement for extraordinary and unexpected costs.
The state open meetings law says a meeting of three supervisors is public and must be announced within an hour of the meeting time. Board attorney Reggie Jones could only confirm that Liberty mayor and Southern Herald owner Ricky Stratton was called.
“We were in an emergency situation. … We did what we needed to do to make sure the citizens of Amite County were protected. Nobody’s trying to hide anything,” Jones said.
AAA Ambulance CEO Wade Spruill said the company’s coverage of Amite County did not mean they were diverting resources from Pike County and Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center.
One ambulance was initially diverted to the Liberty fire station at 11:45 p.m. Wednesday, Spruill said, but a plan to keep an ambulance based there until a long-term plan is announced is no longer affecting Pike County resources, he said.
Having an ambulance at the Liberty fire station will prevent any change in response times, Walsh said.
“Our plans are to stay there and cover them on a gentleman’s basis,” Spruill said. “It’s the right thing to do for the public.”
Spruill said ambulance industry officials had been planning for the EmergyStat closure as well.
“It’s been in the wind,” he said. “The company had severe tax liens against them, as well as defaults on the insurance against them in several states.”
Jones said AAA was not under any contractual obligation to provide service and that the county would likely have to provide compensation “once we’ve got our feet under us.”
“It took us by total surprise,” said Taylor, commenting on the situation around the state. “We’re all in the same boat.”
State Health Officer Dr. Ed Thompson said in a statement that his department was already receiving hundreds of phone calls Wednesday night.
“Many of the affected counties have declared pre-emptive emergency declarations, allowing them to seek mutual aid from other counties or other sources,” Thompson said.
EmergyStat provided service in Pike County until Oct. 31, when officials decided not to renew a three-year contract with the company and switched to AAA.
Before severing ties with EmergyStat, Pike County supervisors held a public hearing, in which residents lodged complaints about the company’s service, and the board deemed the company “inadequate.”
Southwest Health SystemsCEO Norman Price said last October before the contract ran out that he reviewed EmergyStat’s financial records and determined the company fiscally unstable.
