By Patric Hedlund, TME

Hall Ambulance Service failed to comply with the minimum standards of its monopoly contracts to serve 90% of the population of Kern County during 2017. On February 6, Matt Constantine of the Kern County Public Health Services Department reported a wide-ranging set of failures to the Board of Supervisors.

Now the State of California’s Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) has stepped up to require that the Kern County Board of Supervisors put its ambulance service contracts out for competitive bid. EMSA has been asking Kern County to modernize its emergency medical service plan since 2012. But Kern County has continued to operate without state approval of its plan for…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

The owner of Hall Ambulance Service perfected the art of being Bakersfield’s cuddly ‘Mayor Harvey’ in front of the camera and a hard-nosed politician-businessman behind the scenes. His Hallmark Newsletter shows him (l) hugging a mascot at a CSUB game and stepping down after 16 years as mayor of Bakersfield, just as the company’s failure to meet minimum emergency medical response standards was becoming known.

Jennifer Lim of the state authority says Kern County’s lack of competitive bids for emergency medical services is a concern.

Becky Brooks, Esq., points to the statistics and concern for public safety.

Hall Ambulance Service personnel are always greatly appreciated, but questions about pricing and management persist.

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This is part of the March 23, 2018 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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