In a special called meeting Monday, the Loudon County
Commission voted unanimously to accept the proposal of
Priority Ambulance as the new emergency ambulance
service provider for the county.
Commissioner Van Shaver said the commission voted 9-to-0
to accept the proposal. He said Rural/Metro Ambulance
Service did not reapply.
Last month Rural/Metro asked the commission to let it
out of its contract by Dec. 31, which was supposed to
expire Dec. 31, 2015.
Dennis Rowe, Priority’s director of Operations for East
Tennessee, said his company responded to the request for
proposals along with one other company.
The county and Priority still have to discuss, write and
finalize a new contract.
Shaver said that among the issues to be discussed in the
contract will be a “dispatch fee” that Priority would
pay to the county for every call dispatched through the
E-911 system. He said Priority also offered to do jail
calls and coroner calls at no charge.
Rowe said that Priority is already staffing to the terms
of the proposal which keeps at least four ambulances in
the county at the same time. The company is conducting a
demand analysis to learn more about load factors in at
different days and times in different parts of the
county.
The ambulance services contracted by the county are in
addition to the contracts Priority has signed with the
city of Loudon and Lenoir City.
Rowe said the combination of the county contract with
the city contracts significantly increases the total
number of ambulance units available county wide.
“We’re going to be well covered,” Shaver said.
The county may in the future look to work with the
cities to consolidate all the contracts with Priority.