GATP-backed HB 264 voted out of Health & Human Services Cmt. ATLANTA, GEORGIA (March 6, 2019) Proposed legislation to end a transparency and ethics gap allowing ambulance vendors to direct taxpayer resources in the provision and delivery of emergency medical services across Georgia was approved Tuesday night by the House Health and Human Services Committee....
Tragedy to advocacy By Tia Lynn Ivey Morgan County Citizen Morgan County’s very own Ellen Sims has become the face of a new campaign to reform Georgia’s emergency medical response system after tragically losing her mother, Donna Martin, who died of cardiac arrest triggered by a wasp sting after waiting for nearly a half hour...
It took 1,680 seconds for an ambulance to get to Donna Martin. National EMS is the ambulance provider in Morgan County, Georgia but it never showed up. “It took 30 min for her to get an ambulance from an outside county other than the one she lived in and she passed away as a result,”...
The Jolt By Jim Galloway The Atlanta Journal-Constitution February 14, 2019 State Rep. Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville, has introduced legislation that would bar private ambulance operators from serving on boards that select which ambulance companies will serve local health districts. HB 264 has some hefty co-sponsors: Matt Hatchett, R-Dublin, chair of the House GOP caucus; Randy...
Bill would end decades of corruption, pay-to-play
Advocacy groups join EMS transparency effort By Jim Galloway, Greg Bluestein The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Oct. 25, 2018 Several advocacy and watchdog groups say they’ve allied themselves with the Georgia Ambulance Transparency Project, an initiative to restore transparency and ethics to the provision and delivery of emergency services across the state. Among the new members: Common...
Coalition will advocate for legislative solutions under Gold Dome
A Georgia judge granted an emergency injunction this week to block the actions of Augusta’s emergency medical services council after the unelected panel was accused of conflicts of interest in the provision and selection of ambulance providers. The ruling came after Augusta’s current provider, Gold Cross, filed a dramatic law suit alleging that the city’s...
A Georgia father said this week that emergency medical services took fully an hour to respond to his 911 plea for help after his 8-year-old son broke his leg and another two hours before the ambulance finally deposited him in the care of doctors. Do you have a similar story? Share it with us...
Augusta Chronicle, August 18, Sylvia Cooper At the commission’s request Tuesday, Augusta Fire Chief Chris James talked generally about pursuing the EMS zone designation and how he’ll run the ambulance service if successful, although everybody already knew everything he said – except for one thing. He’ll ask for a $400,000 increase for EMS in next...
