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S <br /> r <br /> r 1 <br /> ORANGE COUNTY <br /> BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br /> ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br /> .Meeting Date: April 2, 2002 <br /> Action Agenda <br /> Item No. 9—Q <br /> SUBJECT: Non-Emergency Ambulance Transport <br /> DEPARTMENT: Emergency Management PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br /> ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br /> 3/14/02 EM Director Report Nick Waters, ext 3030 <br /> Application for Franchise <br /> TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br /> Hillsborough 732-8181 <br /> Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br /> Durham 688-7331 <br /> Mebane 336-227-2031 <br /> PURPOSE: To consider awarding a franchise to AAA Transport of Durham to provide non- <br /> emergency ambulance transportation services in Orange County; and to receive a report on <br /> various modifications needed to the existing franchise ordinance. <br /> BACKGROUND: In 1994, the Orange County Board of Commissioners made a decision to <br /> discontinue providing non-emergency ambulance transportation service as a County function. <br /> The decision was made for a variety of reasons, including the need to allocate the County's <br /> limited paramedic and emergency medical technician resources to the highest priority need — <br /> emergency transportation. Non-emergency transportation was to be provided by private for- <br /> profit or non-profit entities franchised to provide "convalescent" or non-emergency transport <br /> inside Orange County. <br /> Under the terms of the County's April 1993 "Ordinance Regulating Emergency Medical, First <br /> Responder, and Rescue Service and Granting of Franchises and Contracts to the Operators in <br /> the County of Orange", persons who wish to engage in the service or business of transporting <br /> patients between two points within Orange County must apply to the County for a franchise. <br /> The Emergency Management Services Department has received and reviewed an application <br /> for a franchise to provide non-emergency basic life support transportation from AAA Transport <br /> of Durham. Staff has met with the officers of AAA Transport and has investigated the <br /> information provided in the franchise application. <br /> Currently, Johnston Ambulance is the only private service franchised to provide non-emergency <br /> ambulance transportation within Orange County. As allowed by the ambulance franchise <br /> ordinance, AAA Transport of Durham has been providing ambulance transportation into and out <br /> of Orange County for more than a year. According to the owner of AAA Transport, several <br /> institutions in the County that are frequent users of ambulance transportation services have <br /> encouraged him to pursue a franchise to allow the in-county transportation of patients. AAA <br /> operates six ambulances that will be available to schedule trips within Orange County. Staff <br />