By Bayne Hughes
The Decatur Daily
DECATUR, Ala. — The Decatur City Council on Monday stuck with a previous promise that it would not overturn any further penalties against Decatur Morgan Hospital’s ambulance service for its failure to meet the city’s response time requirements.
The council voted 2-1, with Councilman Carlton McMasters abstaining, to reject Decatur Morgan Hospital’s appeal of a $5,000 fine for failure to meet the city’s requirements in the police jurisdiction during the first quarter of 2024. Councilman Billy Jackson was absent.
The ambulance service received the penalties because it responded to only 82% of its calls in the police jurisdiction within 13 minutes during the first three months of 2024.
A city ordinance requires that the ambulance service respond to at least 90% of police jurisdiction calls within 13 minutes in each quarter. The police jurisdiction is an area 1 1/2 -miles outside the city limits in which the city provides police, fire and EMS protection while enforcing building regulations.
In June, the Ambulance Regulatory Board unanimously upheld the fine assessed by Chris Phillips, Decatur Fire & Rescue medical services coordinator, and approved a points penalty on his recommendation.
The hospital appealed the fine, and Chief Executive Officer Kelli Powers said Monday that they accept the points penalty.
Powers and hospital EMS Director Tyler Stinson tried unsuccessfully to get the council to uphold the appeal. Stinson said the ambulance service improved in the following months so it’s now making the required response times in the city and PJ.
“We made improvements with our posting plan,” Stinson said of the placement of ambulances in key spots around the city to improve response times.
Powers pointed out that the ambulance service was “having the same personnel problems that other EMS are” at the time.
“We’re paying a lot of overtime and, if you could just help us with the $5,000, we would appreciate it,” Powers said. “We kept all of our points. We just want to do the right thing, and we’ve made all of our times since then.”
Accumulating 26 points within two years would trigger a requirement that the EMS coordinator recommend revocation of an ambulance service’s license to operate, a decision that ultimately is up to the City Council.
Stinson attributed some of the problems to icy weather during the quarter. He said they had an unusually high call volume in January.
This was the second time for the hospital to appeal a fine since starting EMS coverage in the city in 2021. The council granted the hospital’s appeal after it failed to make its time in the police jurisdiction in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Council President Jacob Ladner said at the time he wouldn’t grant another appeal if the hospital EMS failed again, and he stuck to his word Monday even though he said Decatur Morgan Hospital “is doing an exceptional job.”
He said he hadn’t received a single email with a complaint after receiving email complaints daily before the hospital began an ambulance service.
“I hate to do this — maybe there needs to be some work done on the ordinance to make it easier for them — but we have an ordinance we need to stick by,” Ladner said.
Ladner said if hospital officials want the ordinance to change, they need to work with the Decatur Fire & Rescue, the city’s Legal Department and the ARB to make adjustments.
“Otherwise, it is what is, and we need to enforce it,” Ladner said.
Councilman Kyle Pike voted with Ladner to reject the appeal. While he said he’s also pleased with the hospital’s ambulance service, Pike said he thinks the council needs to enforce its ordinance.
“At their first appeal, it was pretty openly discussed that we will have to hold them up to our standards and the vote reflected that,” Pike said. “It’s not anything I want to have to do.”
Pike said conversations between Decatur Fire & Rescue and the hospital will continue “about how they can better their service and response times will reflect that.”
Councilman Hunter Pepper, who works for Jefferson County EMS, was alone on the council in voting to grant the appeal.
He said the staffing situations that EMS are currently facing and the number of non-medical and medical calls in their runs should be factors in the final decision on whether to penalize an ambulance service.
“There should be standards they’re held accountable to, but certain situations should be factored into the decision,” Pepper said.
Pepper said he “struggled with fining” the hospital “when they’re already suffering enough without employees.”
Ladner said the ambulance service can ask the EMS coordinator for an exception on a call, but it didn’t make any request during the first quarter.
Powers said she understands where the council is coming from because they have an ordinance to uphold.
“We were thinking that some of these were during the ice storm, and they might forgive us on that,” Powers said. “We don’t make money on the ambulance service.”
Powers said she thinks police jurisdiction response times will improve now that the hospital EMS expanded its coverage to all of Morgan County in July.
“That means more trucks and more staff,” she said.
Stinson said his EMS now has eight trucks during the day and four at night in the city and five trucks in the day and three at night in the county. Each truck usually carries a paramedic and an EMT, although occasionally it will have two paramedics.
He said they’re currently able to staff every truck as planned unless there’s an employee who misses because of sickness or a personal issue.
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