HCA Healthcare exploring EMS options in Hot Springs

The Citizen-Times

The Hot Springs Fire Department currently shares space with EMS personnel on Andrews Street.

Negotiations in Hot Springs are underway between town officials and HCA Healthcare representatives over a lease for emergency medical services facilities.

After emerging from a closed session discussion with Town Attorney Ron Moore and the Board of Aldermen on July 1, Mayor Sidney Harrison said HCA Healthcare, new owners of Mission Health, had expressed interest in leasing the entire space it now shares with the Hot Springs Fire Department.

HCA Healthcare holds a contract with Madison County to provide EMS crews in Marshall, Mars Hill and Hot Springs through June 2020. The deal, which costs Madison County $1.1 million annually, came after a modified merger agreement negotiated with state Attorney General Josh Stein’s office mandated HCA continue EMS services in Madison and other rural counties where Mission Health operated ambulance services.

That deal with the county is independent of any agreement with Hot Springs, which sees the health care giant lease space from the town to house the EMS crew serving the municipality and surrounding area. Through that contract, Hot Springs collects $5,000 annually for space inside the town’s volunteer fire department building on Andrews Street. Harrison said that deal is set to expire at the end of August.

HCA’s interest in the current fire department building beside the railroad tracks comes as renovations to the former U.S. Forest Service property acquired by the town in 2017 near completion.

“We’re within 45-50 days,” Harrison said July 2 of work on the 3.5 acre-property. The fire department will move onto that site when work is complete.

Town officials had planned to lease space to what was then Mission Health inside the U.S. Forest Service property acquired in 2017.

Before the merger, then-Mission Health officials had expressed interest in leasing space inside the six-building complex, Harrison said.

“They indicated they wanted to get away from the railroad,” he said, adding that requests for a shower and two bathrooms had been included in one building as part of the project. “I think we put in new heating and air conditioning. It’s going to be a pretty good little building for something.”

Representatives with HCA Healthcare did not return request for comment on negotiations by time of publication.

In other board action

Aldermen approved a water hauling policy that will charge homeowners a minimum of $50 when fire department trucks are used to fill private pools.