First Response ambulance response times failed to meet Decatur City Code requirements, but the EMS committee on Tuesday did not recommended City Council action or make a finding that the ambulance service had good cause for its failure.
Decatur Fire Chief Tony Grande said he’s frustrated at First Response’s failure to meet the requirements of the city code, but noted that some of the failure could have been the result of overly conservative classification of calls as emergencies by Morgan County 911 and by delays at Decatur Morgan Hospital in preparing patients for non-emergency transport from the hospital.
Grande also reiterated his preference for a city-owned ambulance service. The city code requires that First Response, which has a monopoly in the city, have a response time of eight minutes or less on 90 percent of its in-city calls and 12 minutes or less on 90 percent of its calls in the police jurisdiction.