Costs of Not Having a Hospital Are Adding Up

The closure of St. Mark’s Medical Center is really starting to cost Fayette County.

Fayette County EMS put a lot of miles on their ambulances now that there’s no emergency room anywhere in the County. They need to purchase two new ambulances to keep up with all the miles they’re logging.

At their meeting last Thursday, the Fayette County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to approve the purchase of two new ambulances from Siddons-Martin Emergency Group at a total cost of $687,620. That was the lowest of two bids the County received. The company Frazer, Ltd. submitted a bit of $701,250 for two ambulances.

Fayette County EMS used to purchase roughly one ambulance per year. The newest ambulances go into the department’s regular fleet while the older ones are placed on reserve duty.

Back in December of 2023, after St. Mark’s closed, Fayette County EMS Director Josh Vandever predicted that the County would need to increase its replacement schedule to three ambulances every two years. Now, more than a year later, his prediction materialized. Vandever said his department put 297,539 miles on the fleet last year. That’s up about 90,000 miles compared to EMS’s annual mileage from the time before St. Mark’s closing.