Posts Tagged Tinley Park reviews options for EMS

Tinley Park changes EMS provider

An article in the TribLocal outlines a vote in Tinley Park to change providers for EMS.

Tinley Park trustees voted Tuesday night to drop the village’s longtime ambulance services provider in favor of a new company, a move village officials said would save the village about $800,000 over the life of the contract.

A new agreement, between Kurtz Ambulance Service and Tinley Park, is worth $3,758,531 and lasts four years from Aug. 1 through July 31, 2018. Kurtz will replace Tinley Park’s current provider, Trace Ambulance.

Under the agreement, Tinley Park will see an increase in ambulances dedicated to the village from four to five during peak service hours, Public Safety Chairman Brian Maher said. All ambulances servicing the village will also be required to be equipped with GPS systems.

“We’re getting a more sophisticated system with Kurtz in terms of tracking ambulances,” Maher said, noting that village officials will be able to pull up each ambulance’s location under the new agreement. That capability would not be there with Trace, Maher said.

More than 5,000 emergency calls for service come in to Tinley Park each year, Emergency Management Agency Director Pat Carr has said.

Kurtz Ambulance Service provides ambulance services to 26 different communities around the Chicagoland region, Kurtz COE Tom Vana said. Vana said his company would give hiring preference to paramedics currently working in the village and said it had already received over 40 resumes from locals waiting to see if Kurtz received the contract.

Through its family and management team, Trace has been the town’s ambulance provider since 1979 except for one brief interruption, Trace President Christopher Vandenberg told the village’s Public Safety Committee earlier this year. At that meeting, Vandenberg reminded village officials that the one time Tinley Park went with another company in the 1990s the vendor went bankrupt.

Trace Ambulance is based in Tinley Park.

One woman stood up to question the board’s commitment to local businesses in light of the ambulance contract situation.

“As a board, as a village, we preach shop Tinley Park,” the resident said. “We’re sitting with an ambulance company that has given us great service over the years yet we’re willing to throw that away?”

After the meeting, Maher said the village has a policy that it will select the local vendor in situations where there is a 5 percent difference between proposals. But that was not the case between Kurtz and Trace.

“I can’t justify paying 21 percent more just because the company is here in Tinley,” Maher said.

thanks Dennis

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Tinley Park reviewing options for EMS

The Chicago Tribune has an article about the Tinley Park officials examining options for EMS coverage.

Tinley Park officials are exploring several options for ambulance service once the village’s contract with Trace Ambulance expires April 30. Under the current contract, Tinley Park pays approximately $600,000 a year to Trace Ambulance to staff four ambulances in town during most of the day, according to Emergency Management Agency Director Pat Carr. The village receives more than 5,000 emergency calls for service a year, Carr said.

In addition to the $600,000 paid by the village, Trace handles billing of patients for ambulance service, Carr said. Tinley Park does not collect any of that revenue, Carr said.

Village officials plan to issue a request for proposal for ambulance services in the near future, possibly at the April 1 Tinley Park Village Board meeting, Carr said.

Village officials are also considering whether to add a fifth ambulance to the contract between 6 a.m. and midnight, Tilton said. Having four ambulances in town hasn’t caused any issues in the past, he said, but the village would like to know what having a fifth ambulance would cost, especially as Tinley’s demographics change and the population ages.

Mayor Ed Zabrocki said the village’s dealings with Trace have been positive in the past but said the village is considering all options.

In its call for proposals, the village is planning to set minimum standards to ensure that only qualified bidders are applicants, including having provided a minimum of 18 months of continuous service within the last three years to another town with a population of at least 35,000, Carr said.

Trace Ambulance, [is] based in Tinley Park. Chris Vandenberg, president of Trace Ambulance, said the company has been servicing Tinley Park off and on since the 1960s and the company plans to make a bid.

thanks Dan

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