Shelbyville Issues RFP; Eliminates Competition For Ambulance Services –

Shelby Co. (ECWd) –

While the City of Shelbyville did the right thing during their last meeting and did not implement the proposed standard of care document which basically eliminated any competition to Abbot Ambulance, the RFP issued does exactly that.

During the meeting, the city council, Mayor, and their attorney would not commit to publishing a Request for Proposals in the paper and only stated they would share it with the ambulance agencies who showed an interest at their prior meeting.

For a group of elected officials to sit in a meeting and recognize competition is a good thing, we must ask, if you believe as you claim, why not publicize the RFP far and wide, which only leads to the competition they claimed they wanted?

After reading the RFP, it appears they took the path to pre-select an agency that already has one particular piece of equipment, an automatic vehicle locator technology.  We note that the very document they tabled as not being necessary included automatic vehicle locator technology, which is not needed nor required by IDPH or Region 6. 

Abbott was required to have this equipment when they operated in Effingham County, which no longer contracts with them.

The equipment requirement is meaningless without the support system to actually monitor the vehicle location, which the current 911 Dispatch Centers do not monitor.  Who is going to monitor the vehicle’s location?  If it’s the owner of the vehicle through their own paid-for system as a private company, what purpose does it serve other than to limit who could apply for a license?

It appears to be written in a fashion that steers the licensing opportunity to the vendor they desire.  We say this because not only does the language in the RFP eliminate competition, but they have also chosen to not have any deadline for the RFP process.

“so the city is willing to expedite review and license approvals for qualified applicants, and to accelerate issuance of licenses in the interests of maintaining service continuity and uninterrupted ambulance coverage. For this reason, there is no deadline for submission of proposals/license requests; they will be reviewed and evaluated and awarded by the City after submittal as quickly as the City can verify compliance with requirements and overall suitability of applicants for a license.”

A copy of the RFP can be downloaded at this link or viewed below.