Brunswick County, City of Southport release statement on EMS agreement
SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — The City of Southport and Brunswick County have released a statement saying they are committed to clarifying any misconceptions about their partnership involving emergency services.
The City and County have partnered in the delivery of EMS services through franchise agreements for several years.
Recently, both organizations have heard questions and concerns from the community about a draft EMS franchise agreement and language concerning the term standby. Leadership from both organizations met this past Friday to discuss the draft agreement and clarify any misunderstandings.
State administrative code requires that all EMS agencies operating within a county must be a part of the EMS System within that county. The language referencing standby assistance was placed in the franchise agreement to ensure all EMS agencies would function entirely within the County’s EMS System and in alignment with state code, and to ensure that the Southport area continues to receive the additional coverage a countywide EMS System provides.
State law requires that all EMS crews operating at the Paramedic Level are required to provide standby assistance within an EMS System. Because the City intends to upgrade from the Emergency Medical Technician Level to the Paramedic Level, the statement says the language was necessary to both comply with the law and to ensure the Southport area continues to receive the additional coverage a countywide EMS System provides.
“One of the key benefits of the System is that it ensures our municipal and agency EMS partners will automatically have ambulance service for their traditional service area in the event their crews are busy responding to other calls or transporting patients to the hospital, and vice versa,” Brunswick County EMS Director Lyle Johnston said. “The EMS System provides redundancy so that we can get an ambulance to someone in need as quickly and effectively as possible. We are proud to work with Southport’s EMS team and will continue to do our utmost to support them however possible.”
Putting a municipal EMS crew on standby does not mean the ambulance will be regularly sent far away from its usual service area, according to the joint statement. Also, agreeing to standby through a franchise agreement does not mean the ambulance is always on standby. Should the EMS System request a municipal or agency crew go on standby, it would be for a specific period of time and at a set location.
As part of their continued dialogue on the matter, the City and the County are establishing agreed-upon EMS base locations where the City’s crews would go on standby if called upon that are still in proximity to Southport’s traditional response area.
“The City of Southport continues to partner with the County, and these joint decisions do not jeopardize our duty or safety to our citizens,” Southport Fire Chief Charles Drew said. “With these arrangements, the City will still achieve great response times and stellar pre-hospital care to our citizens, which is our main goal.”
Per state law, county governments like Brunswick County must establish and oversee an EMS System that provides services to a specific service area—in Brunswick’s case, this service area spans the entire county. As manager of the System, Brunswick County works with all EMS providers in our county to review for compliance with state laws and rules and ensure ambulances are available 24/7 to support calls for emergency help.
Despite being a rural county, Brunswick County currently uses the Urban Standard as its response time goal, which is 12 minutes. A 2017 NIH study showed that the Rural Standard for EMS response time was less than 26 minutes 90% of the time, and the Suburban Standard was 14 minutes 90% of the time.
On average, Brunswick County achieved the 12 minute response time goal more than 90% of the time in 2023 for both the entire EMS System and individual medic units across a majority of the response call codes. All Delta and Echo responses (i.e., most life-threatening emergency calls) in 2023 were under 12 minutes on average for both the entire EMS System and individual medic units.
