DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County officials have recommended a new five-year contract with an ambulance company, despite being highly-criticized.
AMR, or American Medical Response, has come under fire several times in the past year after major missteps in service. The company has been plagued by complaints of slow response times and negligence.
On one occasion, one of the company’s ambulances got stuck in the grass of I-285 after one of the paramedics missed their exit. A 3-year-old boy in the back was suffering from a seizure and needed to get to the hospital quickly.
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In another instance, an EMT was caught on video punching a teenage patient after spitting on her. That employee, Deanna Williams, lost her job and was charged with battery.
The biggest complaint against the company, overall – slow response times.
The county slapped AMR with more than $1 million in fines in the last year-and-a-half, and still voted over the summer to extend their deal with AMR.
DeKalb Fire and Rescue Chief Darnell Fullman said it was “prudent” to go forward with the extension, regardless of who gets a final contract, because without an extension, the county would have been left without an ambulance company.
Despite the complaints, DeKalb officials said they've instituted new policies and training that will help improve AMR's response times with this new contract proposal.