OCH Regional Medical Center to partner with new medical service provider
OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Tensions ran high at today’s Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors meeting.
This comes after OCH Regional Medical Center announced on social media it would be partnering with a new emergency medical service provider, Global Medical Response.
The new contract would turn OCH’s ambulance services over to GMR or Medstat.
The new contract is set to go into effect on July 1.
The meeting drew a crowd of concerned citizens, hospital staff, and former OCH employees.
One by one people took to the podium to voice their opinions on OCH’s new contract with Global Medical Response.
Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors President Orlando Trainer said his main concern is ensuring county residents get proper medical care.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure the service is not interrupted and that the service is enhanced and so from what I’ve heard from these individuals there is a great possibility more so than anything that the services will be enhanced and some things that people are concerned about will be addressed,” said Trainer.
While many feel like they were not properly informed about the contract, the hospital’s decisions are made by its board of Trustees
County Attorney Rob Roberson said these types of decisions almost always come with concerns because you never know the outcome.
“I know that we’ve had some problems with the hospital and being economically able to move forward but whether or not this is the best idea I don’t know. I would like to think that the board of trustees that are out there is trying to do the best that it can. It’s a two-year contract we can always come back as a county and take that back over if we need to,” said Roberson.
Roberson said many OCH employees at the meeting have been with the hospital for years, and want assurances about the future of their jobs.
“Anytime you have change and new people come in you are going to have some uncertainty. I’m hoping with Medstat with the things they said to us no one losing money and everyone has been offered a job according to what we heard here today,” said Roberson.
The contract has not been finalized, and there are many things that Supervisors would like to see in writing.
“With this new entity coming in, we need to get a written understanding so people will know exactly what the expectations are and that just comes along with time. Some things you have to evolve and modernize and bring up to scale so people will know exactly what the expectations are,” said Trainer.
The board is planning another meeting with OCH to go over all the details of this new contract.
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