After hearing a bi-annual report on the performance of emergency medical services in Athens, ACC Commissioner Carol Myers had some harsh words for National EMS, an ambulance company that currently serves both Athens-Clarke and Oconee County.
National EMS, a for-profit company, has faced criticism from both counties over the last several years about different aspects of its performance, including the speed at which the company’s ambulances are able to respond to emergencies. The Oconee County Board of Commissioners voted to end its relationship with National EMS in April because of “slow response times…billing problems, staffing issues, anticipated increased costs and the lack of county control,” as reported by Lee Becker of Oconee County Observations.
At a work session on Tuesday, Myers questioned the legitimacy of a map that National EMS uses to determine how quickly its ambulances should respond to medical 911 calls.
“I don’t know where that map came from. When we’ve asked before, it’s been like ‘oh, it’s always been there,’ Myers said. “I really think we need to move away from this map. It doesn’t make sense in terms of differentiating response times.”
Commonly-used standards suggest that ambulances should respond to medical emergencies in under nine minutes in urban areas, or under 13 minutes in non-urban areas. While the importance of prompt ambulance responses to all emergencies is sometimes downplayed by medical professionals, response times remain a convenient metric for judging an agency’s performance. This is why this map is so important – National EMS argues that it shouldn’t be held to a strict, sub-nine minute response time standard for all of Athens, only for part of the county.
Some parts of Athens-Clarke County may indeed seem rural to some readers. The question is: which parts of the county and why?
For example, if you drive down Gaines School Road and turn onto Cedar Shoals Drive heading east, you might think that you’re well within the urban core of Athens. But not according to the map that National EMS uses. Everything south of Cedar Shoals Drive is considered non-urban according to this map. That gives National EMS an extra four minutes to respond to emergencies in that direction, where, for example, the Green Acres neighborhood is located.
Other areas considered “non-urban” by National EMS include the Woodhaven and High Ridge neighborhoods, everything west of Whitehead Road as well as the city of Winterville. Even the Atlanta Highway outside the loop is considered “non-urban” according to this map (except for the Georgia Square Mall property).
“This [map] doesn’t even make sense,” Myers said. “It puts my neighborhood, which is really close to your EMS east side [station] in a non-urban area, but Cedar Shoals [Drive] in the urban area…Riverbend, which is just covered in apartment complexes, is in the non-urban area as well. There might be some historical reason for this from way back when, but we need to put this into the present time for 2026.”
National EMS Operations Manager Tracy LaFlam, who gave the presentation to the mayor and commission, could not explain why the map was drawn as it is. The map has been in use at least since 2019, which was the last (and maybe the first) time it was presented publicly. However, it’s possible the map has been in use ever since 2009, the year National EMS started operations in Athens. That would mean it could be based on census data from the year 2000.
According to the company’s performance metrics from April to June, National EMS ambulances responded three minutes slower on average to 911 calls in areas they consider to be “non-urban.” Unlike National EMS, the ACC Fire Department does not distinguish between urban and non-urban zones and holds itself to the same sub-nine minute standard across all of Athens. ACC firefighters met this strict standard with almost a minute to spare while their for-profit counterparts trailed nearly five minutes behind in urban areas and eight minutes behind in so-called “non-urban” areas.
Myers requested National EMS’ raw, unedited response time data, which she says is needed to establish “credibility.” Myers asked for this data in January but never received it.
During the April to June time period, the ACC Fire Department never experienced system saturation, always having at least three of its 15 EMS units ready and available to respond to emergencies. National EMS, which has only 13 total EMS units spread over two counties, experienced system saturation 19 times over the three month period. That means more than once a week, on average, National EMS has no available ambulances capable of responding to emergencies and must rely on the ACC Fire Department or another agency to provide assistance.
ACC Manager Robert Cowell remarked that this was “all the more reason why we need to continue to emphasize the advancement of both our training [of ACC firefighters, who are trained as EMTs] as well as the equipment and the protocols we have in place.”
Oconee County plans to end its relationship with National EMS and start a new, county-run EMS department on December 31.
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5 thoughts on “ACC Commissioner questions credibility of National EMS reporting”
This is why public services shouldn’t be privatized. Profit becomes more important than anything else.
Having two maps makes no sense for the smallest county in the state of Georgia. It hides the fact that National EMS’ response times are slower than the standard they agreed to. The fire department uses one map and one response time standard for EMS calls. National EMS is part of that same 911 system. It’s really pretty simple. They need to follow the same map and adhere to the same response time standard that our fire department adheres to on EMS calls. Two maps in the smallest county in the state of Georgia is just silly and dangerous, and it just distorts the truth. We’ve been asking for access to their raw response time data on calls that run through OUR 911 system for years and unfortunately there is just no transparency with this company. That’s one reason Oconee County fired them.
And, personally, I am grateful to my Commissioner, Commissioner Myers, who is willing to stand up for her constituents who may not be able to stand up for themselves in their time of greatest need. A person’s potentially lethal heart attack, or the infant with respiratory arrest doesn’t care which side of the damn road you live on. Allowing 3 extra minutes on these calls is nothing more than a smokescreen that plays Russian Roulette with vulnerable citizens at their time of greatest need. Hiding the problem does no one any good, and it makes it impossible to fix.
Perhaps ACC should follow what Oconee Co. is doing…is anyone looking into this option?
Not yet, but things are progressing towards a point where National would need to improve or things like that would be on the table.