SPCAD to consider proposals

Board members of the Southern Platte County Ambulance District will meet Wednesday evening for their regularly scheduled June meeting. They plan to consider proposals submitted in response to the board’s request for proposals (RFP) for ambulance services to the district. According to the unofficial draft of May’s board meeting minutes, bids were requested from four local service providers. They included the Northland Regional Ambulance District (NRAD), the Weston Fire Department, American Medical Response (AMR) of Independence, and Heartland Medical Center of St. Joseph. The minutes, which are scheduled to be approved as drafted at Wednesday’s meeting, indicate Board President Bobby Kincaid’s belief that AMR and Heartland Medical were the two most interested in the opportunity to provide services in southern Platte County, but as detailed in last week’s Citizen, NRAD has also submitted a bid proposal while the Weston Fire Department has decided to turn down the opportunity to bid.

The proposals will be evaluated in addition to the Kansas City Fire Department’s proposal to revise the contract for services currently in the place between the district and KCFD. Since the district’s previous service provider, MAST, was merged into the KCFD in 2010, response times have failed to meet the standards outlined in the contract. Recently SPCAD board members began to explore alternatives which would lead to the nine minute standard response time to be met a higher percentage of the time. Whether a revised contract with KCFD or contracting with a new emergency medical service provider is the answer has yet to be determined.