Sandy Springs has joined four other North Fulton cities to approve an agreement that guarantees a 12-minute ambulance response for serious emergencies.
Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton, and Roswell signed an agreement with American Medical Response (AMR), which is the designated provider to North Fulton County per the Georgia Department of Public Health approved Regional Ambulance Zoning Plan.
The 12-minute response time was a departure for Sandy Springs, which had been paying an extra subsidy to guarantee nine-minute responses by AMR. Chief Keith Sanders said the Sandy Springs Fire Department has and will continue to respond to all EMS calls, usually arriving before ambulances do and within eight minutes of the call.
“Today, our apparatus, all of our trucks, engines, and ladder trucks, are staffed with at least one paramedic,” Sanders said.
The fire department has all the necessary advanced life support intervention supplies, including drugs and equipment except the ability to transport a patient. The firefighters stabilize the patient upon arrival on the scene.
Sanders said only in six percent of the calls does a patient get transported to a hospital immediately.
The city has ordered a Medical Response Unit (MRU) that will give the department transportation capabilities, he said in response to questions from Councilmember Melody Kelley. Th unit will be delivered in summer 2025.
Sanders also said on June 18 he will present to the council a community paramedicine program to help enhance emergency responses and to take some non-emergency calls out of the 911 system.
The cities agreed to pay AMR a $2 million subsidy in the contract’s first year. Sandy Springs would pay $670,379.08 for the year, broken out into monthly payments.
