Christian Fiscal Court heard an update from the Christian County Ambulance Service at Tuesday’s meeting, where they learned the service is slowly recovering from financial issues.
EMS Board Chair Darrell Gustafson says they recently hired a new agency to take over billing, after the prior company experienced an issue that kept the EMS service from collecting revenue for an extended period of time, significantly impacting the service. He says this new company has them back on the right track and they believe their revenues will be vastly improved over the next few months.
In the meantime, however, they are currently at an operating loss of roughly $568,000—which is actually less than what they were worried it would be.
Hopkinsville Fire Department and EMS Chief Steve Futrell says their ambulances make roughly 12,000 runs a year, and that quickly becomes costly. He says they’re experiencing the same increases in operating costs that everyone is, and they’re working to mitigate it.
He says they greatly appreciate the support of Fiscal Court, Hopkinsville City Council and other agencies—especially the county volunteer fire departments and rescue squads, calling them crucial to Christian County.
Futrell concluded by saying that the trends are looking good, and he hopes the service will be back in good standing, and where they want to be, in the next four to five months.