Parkview EMS started as Fulton County’s new emergency services provider on Monday, July 1. Shown are some employees with an ambulance at the Rochester Fire Station. From left are Katie Adelman, Colin Robinson, Andrea Cattin, Cary Wall, Bryan Corn and John Petro. Robinson is a new EMS employee in the county, with Cattin, Wall and Corn all having previously worked for Lutheran EMS, Fulton County’s former EMS provider. Adelman and Petro are training the employees.

Text and Photos
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

ROCHESTER — Fulton County officially has a new emergency medical services provider.

Fulton County Council President Ron Dittman confirmed Parkview EMS started serving the county on Monday, July 1.

Parkview replaced Lutheran EMS, which the county had been negotiating a new contract with. However, Lutheran opted to discontinue negotiations in March.

A letter from Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital CEO Lynn Mergen to Fulton County Commissioners said at that time the health care system had decided to “focus our resources elsewhere while we enhance and expand the facility-based healthcare we provide in this region.”

Commissioners then communicated with Parkview and Heartland Ambulance Service out of Muncie, who had also submitted EMS bids.

They considered Heartland as their next choice, but learned the service wanted more money than its original bid, said Commissioners’ Vice President Rick Ranstead.

“That put them higher than Parkview,” he said.

Parkview’s four-year contract asked for $1.2 million the first three years, going to $900,000 in the fourth, running through the end of 2027, said Ranstead.

He said Parkview also asked the county “to help them buy” three new ambulances, with the county getting to keep the ambulances if it doesn’t renew the contract with Parkview again.

The new contract means the return of an ambulance to Akron, which motivated the county to look for other bids in the first place, as Lutheran had opted to remove an ambulance from the town. The other ambulances are in Rochester and Kewanna.

Those working for Parkview EMS in the county include new employees and those who formerly worked for Lutheran and opted to switch, said Ranstead.

He said he thinks Parkview now having a full-service hospital in Warsaw “helped” the entity decide to come to Fulton County, as “the closer, the better.”

“I am impressed with Parkview,” said Ranstead. “They keep stressing … integrity.”

He said Parkview said if county leaders “hear any complaints” regarding service they are free to contact the health system.

The Fulton County Council has implemented a new special local income tax to cover the cost of Parkview’s contract, with funds earmarked for EMS only. That goes into effect in October, said Dittman, with a person making $50,000 a year paying “$100 more a year in taxes.”

“No one likes to raise taxes, but everyone deserves EMS,” he said.

Cattin poses with a medical bag on the ambulance.