So far it’s sustainable.
After locating an ambulance in Goodrich on Feb. 1’officials at Mobile Medical Response or MMR report that the volumes have been sufficient to keep a unit in the village to serve the township 24 hours a day, seven days per week.
Mobile Medical Response is non-profit, established by St. Mary’s of Michigan and Covenant Health Care in 1994 in an effort to provide emergency medical service in Saginaw County. MMR has since expanded its services to include 15 counties in mid and northern Michigan. Today 100 emergency response vehicles and a staff of almost 600 are employed by MMR. Due to low call volume, Goodrich and Atlas Township are not covered by an EMS, rather, they depend on nearby private ambulance services from Grand Blanc, Davison and, until January 2015, Groveland Township in case of emergency. As a result, response times in emergency situations have been a concern for township officials for many years.
Steve Henson, Genesee County operations manager for MMR, said the operation, located at 8389 S. State Road next door to Buddy’s Brick Oven Pizza, is running smoothly in the first month of operations.
‘We’ve had feedback from the community and it’s been positive,? said Henson. ‘There’s enough (call) volume to make this work here in the Goodrich and Atlas Township area.?
Henson said that residents should see a significant improvement in response time also.
‘Due to the rural area of Atlas (Township) and Goodrich we should respond in 12:59 minutes,? he said. ‘That’s a significant improvement in response time over before. The mid-winter time is typically the slowest time of year. We also expect some increase in volume over the next few months.?
A volunteer ambulance base previously ran in Atlas Township from the Goodrich Lions Club hall on M-15. Township resident Emery Bennett served as board chairman of the Goodrich Volunteer Ambulance for 19 years.
The GVA had as many as 67 volunteers on call 24 hours per day, seven days per week.The ambulance company provided the community with ambulance service until 1997.