Alan Mauldin
The Albany Herald, Ga.
(TNS)
An ambulance breaking down while paramedics are transporting a gunshot victim to the hospital is a nightmare scenario, but one that unfolded recently for Dougherty County Emergency Medical Services.
Fortunately, there was another ambulance in close proximity, and the patient’s ride was resumed after about a minute’s delay. But it did illustrate the aging fleet of ambulances that is a result of COVID-19 supply shortages.
“We’ve been without new trucks since 2021,” EMS Director Sam Allen said. “We’ve got trucks with over 200,000 miles on them. Since COVID hit, we have not been able to get trucks, and that’s all over Georgia and the country. We’re dealing with people’s lives. We’ve got to have dependable vehicles.”
Normally the agency puts ambulances up for sale as surplus after about eight years, or between 130,000 to 150,000 miles on the road, but currently there is one 2011 Dougherty ambulance in the rotation to keep the minimum of 12 in stock at EMS stations around the county.
“Because of COVID, we’ve got trucks that are up to 13 years in age,” Allen said. “Twelve of the 14 ambulances have over 100,000 miles, and we’ve got the two with over 200,000 miles.”
That situation was expected to get worse, as a batch of six replacement trucks were not due for delivery for about another nine months.
However, the ambulance service got a stroke of luck out of the blue recently that will allow it to retire some of the oldest models in the fleet. Allen recently learned that a dealer had three Type III models available.
While distinctly different looking with a van-type front end, the patient compartment at the back is actually two feet longer.
“Thinking outside the box, we had an opportunity where our vendor had three of the Type III ambulances,” Allen said. “In talking with them, they said they had them because somebody had canceled their order and they wanted to know if I was interested in them.
“I said, ‘Do you have the titles (and) the keys, and are they sitting on the lot?’ I called back and he said yes. I said, ‘Send me a picture. I want to see it’.”
After determining that the 2024 Ford E450 ambulances would do the job, Allen spoke with Dougherty County interim County Administrator Barry Brooks, who was supportive of the move, and the Dougherty County Commission acted quickly to scoop up the unexpected windfall. The commission approved purchasing the three available ambulances at a cost of $225,000 each. They were paid for with one-cent special-purpose local-option sales tax revenues.
The first of the three was recently delivered and another is due for arrival next week. The third should be delivered in about two weeks.
EMS expects to receive the balance of the six new ambulances in early summer 2025. The three new ones will allow retiring several of the older trucks and decrease the odds of another mechanical malfunction interrupting a transport. When that occurred with the gunshot victim referenced earlier, another ambulance was about two blocks away and the victim was quickly picked up and rushed to the hospital, Allen said, noting he has made a full recovery.
During the ambulance drought, the county’s shop has worked to keep the older ambulances rolling, the EMS director said. That included expensive engine replacements for ambulances that ordinarily would not have been kept on the road due to high mileage.
“When you have an aging fleet, things like that are going to happen,” Allen said. “The shop’s done an outstanding job keeping the trucks on the road. These trucks are run hard. They’re on the road all day, every day.
“I cannot thank the board enough for as fast as they allowed us to act on the trucks. The board didn’t hesitate.”
Paramedics Ryan Head and Raymond Lorento said they were glad to see the new ambulances rolling in.
“I’m excited we’re finally getting some new ambulances,” Head said. “We’ve needed some new ambulances for a while now. The ones we have now stay in and out of the shop just because of the miles they have on them.”
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