Hospital lease could prompt look at EMS

PANAMA CITY — If Bay Medical Center is leased to joint venture partners LHP Hospital Group and Sacred Heart Health System, the county’s ambulance service would be operated by the joint venture, but it’s unclear for how long.

Bay Medical Center has long held the only Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for emergency transport in Bay County, but that certificate, which was last issued in 2006, is set to expire in December 2012. Community leaders are expressing some skepticism about its renewal.

“I think the board has indicated that when this contract comes up for renewal we need to put it out to bid,” Bay County Commission Chairman George Gainer said.

Some have expressed concern that a for-profit, privately owned hospital, as Bay Medical Center will become if the lease is approved, operating the only emergency medical transportation in the county would be a conflict of interests.

“I never had any problems with Bay Med having it because it was a nonprofit company,” Thomas said.

However, with the possible change of control of the hospital looming, “If someone else wanted to apply for the certificate, I would look at that pretty favorably,” he said.

Jim Shannon, executive vice president for development at LHP, said as part of the agreement to continue services, the joint venture will continue operating the ambulance as it is currently run and will apply for a new certificate.

“I personally believe that fears are misguided that somehow the care is going to suffer,” he said.

Gulf Coast Medical Center President and CEO Brian Baumgardner said he supports the county’s inclination to seriously examine their options for awarding the certificate.

“We do not believe the EMS service should be owned by LHP or any hospital. It should be an independent service fully integrated into the county’s emergency management operations,” he wrote in a statement.

In his perfect world, Thomas said he would like to see the county run the ambulance service and possibly eliminate some redundancies caused by using firefighters to double as first responders, but several years of consecutive budget cuts make the cost hard to swallow.

A study done by county staff at the request of commissioners in March 2011 show taking over the ambulance service would require the purchase of about seven ambulances and all necessary equipment and hiring about 54 employees. The first year’s expenses were estimated at $8.8 million and the second year’s at $7 million.

“Whether the service is run by the county or an independent company, it’s important we have a public bidding process,” Baumgardner wrote. “This assures that Bay County residents have access to an EMS provider who will put into place national best practices of care.”