While city and county officials have decided on Evansville’s AMR Ambulance as the new county-wide ambulance provider, the process leading up to this decision and the aftermath that has followed has been rocky.
Confrontation between Daviess County Judge-Executive Al Mattingly and Owensboro Health Regional Hospital President and CEO Greg Strahan has ensued both publicly and privately over the $150,000 annual subsidies that accompany the 10 one-year contracts AMR has agreed to uphold with city and county governments.
According to Mattingly, OHRH plays an important role in the agreement as the area’s leading medical emergency center, the hospital will inevitably take in a profit from using the ambulance’s services over the next 10 years. While OHRH isn’t involved as an official party in the contract, Mattingly believes the hospital should not only pay for a share of the subsidy costs, but the entire amount in full.
However, Strahan seemingly hasn’t offered to pay for the hospital’s portion of the subsidy costs, agitating local government leaders who will be left paying high interest rates that will likely come out of the pockets of taxpayers.
When grilled by Mattingly at a recent Daviess County Fiscal Court meeting as to whether OHRH would pay any portion of the subsidy, Strahan avoided answering the question directly.
“I think the hospital’s name should be on this contract. If not as the owner then as [another party],” Mattingly said on May 2. “It was mentioned last meeting that we do a better job of handling ambulance services than the hospital. We don’t do healthcare–that’s the hospital.”
Recent rumors that Daviess County Fiscal Court would file a lawsuit against OHRH in regard to their unwillingness to pay for the subsidy costs have made the rounds, but Mattingly put those rumors to rest on Tuesday.
“No, there’s no lawsuit — nothing like that — happening right now,” Mattingly said.
However, County Attorney Claud Porter said Fiscal Court will decide whether or not they want to ask a Daviess Circuit Judge to review a 1978 agreement between the hospital and Fiscal Court concerning ambulance services — specifically, operations, maintenance, funding and providing a contingency plan and agreement.
This contingency plan, wherein the hospital would operate as the ambulance provider should the current provider end its service, is crucial for the City and County as it provides a much-needed safety net for the community.
“Fiscal Court and the City will review all options, including but not limited to, a declaratory judgment action to determine the rights and obligations of the County, City and hospital,” Porter said.
Porter said Fiscal Court would file on one action if its been determined as necessary after all other options have been exhausted.
While Mattingly said there wasn’t a current lawsuit in the works, he also said he hadn’t excluded the possibility of a lawsuit.
“I’m not going to say there won’t be a lawsuit in the future,” he said.
