DeKalb hires new ambulance company

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County has changed ambulance providers again.

The county has hired Rural Metro Ambulance to provide temporary ambulance service starting Tuesday, CEO Burrell Ellis announced Thursday night. The length of the contract was not provided, only that Rural Metro will work until a request for proposals can be submitted.

Last month, CEO’s spokeswoman Shelia Edwards said the county had hired American Medical Response to provide temporary service.

It’s unclear why DeKalb has changed vendors. Edwards did not respond to questions Thursday night.

Last month, DeKalb abruptly terminated its contract with Care Ambulance, saying crews failed to follow policy and had delayed response times. Care has said they are only aware of one complaint: an injured teenage soccer player who waited 22 minutes for an ambulance.

At Care’s request, the county commission is considering an audit after multiple complaints of delayed responses by county 911 employees.

An outside company is also checking all addresses in DeKalb’s 911 system. On Monday, county public safety director William “Wiz” Miller told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 53 addresses had been omitted in April when the county upgraded its Computer-Aided Dispatch system. All of those addresses have since been restored, Miller said.

Rural Metro also provides service to several Fulton County cities, including Alpharetta, Roswell, East Point and College Park.