Long wait-time plagues Alameda County's search for new EMS provider

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Falck Northern California, Alameda County’s emergency medical services provider, is on the way out next year. Who replaces them will take some time.

COUNTY NEWS

BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

—FALCK YOU—Alameda County is searching yet again for a new Emergency Medical Services provider. But the don’t expect a new ambulance vendor zipping around town for at least another year, or more.

—The county is moving away from Falck Northern California, Corp., its current provider. The EMS provider has been frequently criticized for its long response times.

—Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, and Piedmont do not use Falck and, instead, use their own fire departments for ambulance services.

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—Falck signed a five-year contract in 2019 that ends next summer. The Alameda County Fire Department has shown interested in bidding for the contract.

—Lauri McFadden, director of Alameda County Emergency Medical Services, told the Board of Supervisors last week that the best case scenario for selecting a winning bid for the EMS contract is still one year away.

—Some Alameda County supervisors expressed some exasperation with the estimated timeline. But it may take even longer, McFadden said.

—If a competing bidder decides to appeal the county’s selection, along with technological issues that may arise from integrating the new vendor to the existing county system, and purchasing hard to come by new ambulances, the next EMS provider may not be in operation until 2025, she added.

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