NATCHEZ — The three local ambulance companies appeared before the Adams County Board of Supervisors Monday to ask questions about the possibility the county may move to a single-provider system.

The county sought requests for proposals from area ambulance providers last month. The proposals are due next month.

County Administrator Joe Murray said he polled 23 counties in Mississippi, and all 23 counties have a single ambulance provider. Three providers operate in Adams County, with two of them — Metro Ambulance and American Medical Response — sharing in the 911-call duties. The other provider is Rural Rapid Response, which is the single provider for Franklin County.

“We are unique in Mississippi,” Murray said. “We have no contract, no ordinance with teeth, yet the board of supervisors has to make sure that a good ambulance service is being provided to the citizens of Adams County.”

These talks most recently began in October, when supervisors were alerted to a resident having to wait 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

“Across the state, counties are getting a higher sense of accountability by having one provider,” supervisor David Carter said. “We are looking into a way to (improve) response time.”

Carter said the county might get to the end of the request for proposals process for a single ambulance service and find that the current system is the best. However, Murray said if there was magic to having multiple ambulance services in the community, more counties would be doing it.

Jim Graves of Metro said this was the first he’d heard any complaints from the county supervisors.

“This is where I started my business, where I borrowed the money to start it,” he said. “So you are telling me that your intent is to put two of the three of us out of business?”

Carter said his intent was to improve the quality of ambulance service to the 32,000 citizens of the county, and for him, the best way might be going to one service.

When Graves continued asking the question about putting two of the services out of business, Board President Mike Lazarus answered it as directly as he could.

“If you ain’t the lowest bid, you will be out of business in Adams County,” he said.

Graves said he first heard of the county was considering a a single service was on March 21 when the county sent the request for proposals notice, which is due in May.

“This is the best you can do?” he said. “If you had a problem with us, you should have called.”

Tim Houghton, operations manager for AMR, said he understood how the residents might be frustrated with response time.

Houghton said the services do work together when one doesn’t have an ambulance available to go to a location. However, when his ambulance gets the call, five minutes might have elapsed from when the resident originally called 911, which set the response time clock ticking.

“That’s minutes you can’t get back,” he said.

The 911 dispatchers also have an order that it sends ambulance services in — if Metro gets dispatched to one caller, then the next call goes to AMR. The dispatcher doesn’t take into account whose ambulance may be closer to the scene.

“Yes, if you put all of your eggs in one basket, and you put them in the right basket, it will make a difference in response time,” he said. “If I sign an RFP saying I have to have a response time of, say 5 minutes for this section of the city, then I have to deliver on that.”

Tyler Blalock with Rural Rapid said if he lost business in Adams County working with the nursing homes — at a cheaper rate than AMR and Metro — he’d have to cut employees.

“We put our whole lives into this business,” he said. “We are not only sacrificing paychecks, but I put up my house and personal assets. And we have people who depend on us to provide for their families.

“I can understand Jim’s concern — it’s upsetting to hear that all of our hard work has been for nothing.”

Murray said he didn’t want to see the county not act because of fears for jobs, as he said happened with the hospital deal. The county ended up in worse shape financially over that and one of the hospitals ended up closing anyway, he said.

“No political decisions are easy,” Murray said. “You hate to put someone out of business, but you have to do what is best for the most people.”

Supervisor Ricky Gray added the county should talk with the city about this potential change, since it would impact them.

In other news, the board approved its insurance plan with Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Mississippi. The board had previously discussed going back to this service because more doctors in the area take Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

The county has $2 million budgeted for health insurance.