JACKSON — Since 2008, people in need of emergency medical assistance in Jackson have relied on the services of Quality Medical Transport to bring them or their loved ones to a hospital when the township’s first aid squad was not on duty.
On July 23, the Township Council opted to continue using the Bayville-based company’s services until at least 2015, citing their satisfaction with Quality Medical Transport’s performance over the years.
“It seems like only yesterday when we were debating back and forth over whether we should have our [emergency medical] services in-house, or whether the police or fire departments should do it,” council Vice President Scott Martin said.
Quality Medical Transport was one of five companies that responded to a recent request for bids from Jackson and ultimately offered the most advantageous bid, officials said.
According to the contract, Quality Medical Transport will continue to provide three ambulances to cover the 104-square-mile township from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day.
The agreement will run from Aug. 14, 2013, through Aug. 13, 2015. After the initial term, the council will have the option to renew the contract for three additional oneyear periods.
Councilman Kenneth Bressi said approving the contract with Quality Medical Transport was an easy decision because the company has consistently provided more coverage for Jackson than was required in its original agreement.
“It has been a great pleasure to have a great service like this even put in to renew their bid,” Bressi said. “The service we have received from Quality Medical Transport … has been exceptional.”
At times, Quality Medical Transport has had seven or eight ambulances in town when needed, Bressi said.
The emergency medical service, according to the bid agreement, will continue to be provided at no cost to taxpayers.
“When we saw a company bidding for zero [dollars], I still remember asking how they could do it for nothing,” Martin said. “They say you get what you pay for, but certainly not in this case. They have done an outstanding job and their work has been without reproach.”
Individual users of the emergency service pay an amount that may be due to the company through insurance.
“[Quality is] on-call, so the calls get dispatched to them. Then, based on that, they could get compensated by putting the claim to insurance,” Business Administrator Jose Torres said.
By law, residents using the service would still have to pay their deductible for the ambulance service. If an individual has no insurance, the company receives no money, according to Torres.
The agreement calls for Quality Medical Transport to include its own third-party billing and an assurance that response times to a call for assistance be under nine minutes at least 90 percent of the time.
Bressi said Jackson’s experience with Quality Medical Transport has been much better than that.
“They have never come in under 95 percent to reach an incident in nine minutes,” Bressi said. “Most of the time they are within 98 percent, and in a couple of months they have been at 100 percent. It has been a superb service to us.”