GOVERNMENT City of P ugerville looking for newambulance service provider
The city of P ugerville is searching for a new ambulance provider for the city to take over for Acadian Ambulance Services once its contractual obligation ends July 13.
A NEW EMS PROVIDER
Some of the potential providers include but are not limited to:
• Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services • Round Rock Emergency Medical Services
• Williamson County Emergency Medical Services • Acadian Ambulance Services
• Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2
BY BRIAN RASH
jurisdictional authority with Acadian. “The short answer is there was a misunderstanding between Aca- dian and the city about how much authority the city had with regard to the [city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, or ETJ],” Rogers said. Because Travis County contracts with a private dispatch company, the county decides how calls are routed, Rogers said. He added city o cials asked Travis County to route EMS calls within the P ugerville ETJ to Acadian, but the county decided instead to send them to Emergency Services District No. 2. “When Acadian ran the numbers to
SOURCE: CITY OF PFLUGERVILLE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Just over two months after Acadian Ambulance Services began providing private emergency medical services to the city of P ugerville, City Coun- cil voted to terminate its contract with the company. City Council originally approved the contract with Acadian last November, and the company began providing services to the city Jan. 1. During a March 8 meeting, council voted 5-0 to mutually terminate the contract with Acadian—a move that came more than a month after
ACADIAN’SPERFORMANCE The city of P ugerville provided data on Acadian’s performance with the city in January and February. Some of the metrics include:
Response time required for a Priority 1 call
January
February
Total Priority 1 calls Total Priority 2 and 3 calls
222
162
170
131
8 minutes
“THE SHORT ANSWER IS THEREWAS A MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEENACADIAN AND THE CITYABOUT HOWMUCHAUTHORITY THE CITYHADWITH REGARD TO THE CITY’S EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION .” DAVID ROGERS, PFLUGERVILLE CITY COUNCIL MEMBER
Average response time Priority 1 Average response time Priority 2 and 3
7:12
8:12
Acadian submitted a letter to the city of P ugerville on Feb. 2 stating it would terminate the contract. At the March 8 meeting, several P ugerville residents shared stories of negative experiences with Acadian. Neither Acadian nor city o cials
6:49
7:58
contract with the city, they ran the numbers on the assumption that they would be serv- ing the city and the ETJ,” Rogers said. “And the numbers just don’t work for them if they’re only
Response time required for Priority 2 and 3 calls
Responses within required time Priority 1 Responses within required time Priority 2 and 3 Responses over required time Priority 1 Responses over required time Priority 2 and 3
153
101
163
125
15 minutes
69
61
7
6
servicing the city and not the ETJ.” Butch Oberho , the company’s director of governmental relations and business development, sent an email statement to Community Impact Newspaper corroborating Rogers’ assessment of a jurisdictional dispute. “Based on discussions concerning changes in the geographic territory to be covered since the RFP was issued, and proposed changes to
SOURCE: CITY OF PFLUGERVILLE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
provided a reason for the dissolution during the council meeting, but on March 22, P ugerville City Council Member David Rogers said Acadian’s performance was not a factor in the decision. A few missteps aside, he said it had good response times for January and February. Rogers said ultimately the city could not resolve a question of
the language in the contract, both entities thought it would be best to end the agreement and allow the city to seek alternative options for ambulance service,” Oberho said in the statement. Rogers said Acadian is still contrac- tually obligated to provide service until July 13, and ESD 2 has been
and will continue to respond to EMS calls within P ugerville’s ETJ for the foreseeable future. There is not yet a timeline for when a search committee will bring new options before council, according to city sta . Carson Ganong contributed to this report.
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