PORT ARTHUR, Texas — The City of Port Arthur is considering expanding it's ambulance services to better serve their citizens and provide quality care when its needed the most.
Currently, Acadian Ambulance Service serves the city and that will be the case for the next 60 days with a new contract in place.
Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie says residents have made both positive and negative comments about service and response times from Acadian Ambulance Service.
"If a citizen calls and is given the despairing information that I don't have an ambulance available that's not what a person wants to hear," Bartie said.
City leaders are using the next 60 days to research two companies, Acadian Ambulance Service and City Ambulance Service, to find out if more ambulances are needed in the city.
"We're looking at the response times the quality of care the level of training that they are providing," said Port Arthur Fire Chief Greg Benson.
Bartie and Benson say recently, council members voted to extend Acadian's contract, which has been the sole EMS provider the city since 2010.
"What the ordinance states is there is performance metrics that have to be met. They have to respond within 8 minutes 90 percent of the time. Has that threshold been met the information we're getting we're evaluating it to determine that," Benson said.
Bartie says some people feel like Acadian response times aren't fast enough.
Acadian's Vice President for the East Region Erick Thibodeaux tells 12News, that's not the case.
"There's going to be good and bad, but we have met that as far as the past year and beyond that and sometime even exceeding that into 92 or 93 percent," he said.
Thibodeaux doesn't believe having multiple EMS providers is the solution.
"You never know if you're going to get the closest ambulance or not and a lot of people think that if you have two ambulance services you get more ambulances that's not the case," he said.
Thibodeaux says at any point in time Port Arthur could have up to at least 10 ambulances on the streets at once. That must include at least one paramedic and EMT.
Benson says once they're done evaluating their options, they plan to take their findings to city council to decide what will best serve the community.