Merit Health CEO Eric Robinson announced Tuesday the hospital’s sponsorship of dedicated, on-site ambulance crews for seven schools in Adams County and Concordia Parish at varsity football games for the remainder of the 2016 season.
Robinson said the sponsorship will provide ambulance crews for home games, and any possible playoff home games, for the following schools: Trinity Episcopal School, Cathedral School, Natchez High School, Adams County Christian School, Delta Charter School, Vidalia High School and Ferriday High School.
“It was just a good fit,” Robinson said. “We were already sponsoring athletic trainers … I think it’s going to be a win-win for everybody involved.”
The Miss-Lou’s two primary ambulance services, Metro Miss-Lou and American Medical Response, will divide duties. Metro has agreed to cover Natchez High and ACCS, while AMR will cover Cathedral, Trinity and the three Concordia Parish schools.
The company-provided trucks are dedicated to on-site service and are not part of the regular 911 rotation.
Robinson said physician Dan McCallum proposed the idea of a local sponsorship in a Sept. 8 meeting, providing time for ambulance services to work out the logistics of allocating extra crews on Friday nights.
Metro operations manager Jim Graves said the cost of dedicated trucks varies depending on the paramedics’ salary and overtime schedule. No further information was provided regarding what expenses Merit Health’s sponsorship covers
“We got plenty of notice and we (prepared) our crews for extra duties,” Graves said. “Hats off to Eric and Dan for making this happen.”
Currently there is no plan to cover football games beyond the end of this season. The plan also does not cover junior varsity games, typically played on Thursday nights.
Robinson said Merit Health will revisit the proposal at the end of the year.
Robinson added the agreement does not bind providers or patients to seek further medical attention at Merit Health. Rather, ambulance providers and patients can seek out the most suitable location for medical attention based on the circumstances.
“The ambulance providers are not obligated to come to Merit Health Natchez,” Robinson said. “If there is a more suitable location, they can do that.”