City Of Tulsa To Keep Partnership With EMSA

Tulsa's mayor has extended the EMSA contract for another five years. The Tulsa Fire Department offered a plan to take over ambulance service, but it was ultimately rejected over questions of cost

Thursday, January 11th 2007, 9:32 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa's mayor has extended the EMSA contract for another five years. The Tulsa Fire Department offered a plan to take over ambulance service, but it was ultimately rejected over questions of cost and quality of care.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says Mayor Kathy Taylor took the recommendation of a study group [click here to view the recommendation] that decided it was too expensive to make the switch to the Tulsa Fire Department.

There were also concerns about making paramedics work the 24 hours shifts of the Tulsa Fire Department.

The mayor announced her decision Thursday afternoon.

With the renewal, EMSA has another 5 year deal with the city. Mayor Taylor said the review was a healthy process of looking at how the city can best provide ambulance service. "The cost of EMSA or the Fire Department running it on the long term was very comparable, but in the short term, we would have to run dual systems for two years."

And the mayor said the city can't afford to do that.

The city of Tulsa will have to continue subsidizing EMSA, which the ambulance provider says is mainly because the federal government has cut back on health care spending - forcing EMSA to absorb part of the cost of transporting many of their patients.

Last month, Oklahoma City renewed its ambulance service with EMSA.