DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a new five-year contract with American Medical Response (AMR) for emergency ambulance services, a contract extension of nearly $78 million, during a Nov. 18 meeting.
The new contract will increase unit hours to 600 per day, adding a number of other initiatives to improve response times, according to a release from DeKalb County CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson. The performance-based contract also calls for an increased number of ambulances in the system daily, supplemental ambulance provider to support peak call times, and the use of AI analytics to enhance the unit posting system and improve the quality of care.
“As we continue to reimagine how EMS is provided in DeKalb County, I am excited at the progress we have made and expect this contract will allow us to better serve our residents,” said CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson. “We will have a world-class emergency medical service.”
Several DeKalb County officials had complained about the county emergency services’ poor ambulance response times. In 2024, Brookhaven planned to petition the state to let it side-step DeKalb’s ambulance services contract with AMR. Dunwoody made the same plea to city officials.
For the past several years, Dunwoody has contracted with a private ambulance service to patrol the city from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to help speed up response times.
“This is no longer a matter of if someone is going to lose their life over DeKalb County’s lack of response,” Brookhaven Mayor John Park told Rough Draft Atlanta at the time. “Now we are at a point where the question is how many more will have to die before Brookhaven can take this service over.”
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To help resolve the lagging response times, DeKalb County contracted with Fitch and Associates in 2024 to review the overall EMS service delivery, which identified the improvement areas for system design. The report indicated that the EMS system was underfunded and would require a larger investment of “between $12.6 and $16.5 million,” based on system design.
The 2025 contract extension, which included a $4.9 million subsidy to AMR, has already boosted ambulance availability in the county, with the daily unit-hour average rising by 28 percent in the third quarter, which has led to shorter response times across all call types.
“I am excited about the positive outcomes we’ve achieved since the beginning of the year,” said DeKalb Fire Chief Darnell Fullum said in a statement. “This contract is a roadmap for success.