City leaders reject Decatur Morgan Hospital appeal of EMS fine

DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) – Decatur city leaders struck down a Decatur Morgan Hospital appeal of a fine for failure to meet the city’s Emergency Management Service (EMS) response time requirements during the first 3 months of 2024.

In June, the Decatur Morgan Ambulance Service was hit with a $5,000 fine after the ambulance regulatory board found that they were not getting to respond to calls fast enough.

The ambulance service responded to only 82% of its calls to the police jurisdiction within 13 minutes of being dispatched during the first quarter of the year. A city ordinance requires EMS crews to respond to calls in that area within 13 minutes 90% of the time.

During this week’s city council meeting, Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelli Powers and EMS director Tyler Stinson asked the city council to uphold their appeal of the fine.

Stinson told News 19 that since then, the EMS has made improvements to make the required response times in the city and police jurisdiction.

“We understand why they did it they have rules,” said Stinson. “We did miss that response time, and they know that and that’s why we made those changes.”

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“I agree with what Tyler said,” Powers explained. “He’s done a phenomenal job making all the changes to ensure that we are meeting all those times.”

City leaders said despite the EMS improvements, there is a need to enforce its ordinance.

This was the second time the hospital appealed a fine since the EMS started covering areas in the city in 2021. City leaders acknowledged that the EMS services have done an exceptional job in improving their response times.

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