Heartland Ambulance Service will become Greenwood’s new ambulance provider effective Sept. 1.
Provided photo | Heartland Ambulance
A new ambulance company will serve Greenwood starting in September.
Muncie-based Heartland Ambulance Service will replace Indianapolis-based Seals Ambulance as the Greenwood Fire Department’s ambulance provider effective Sept. 1. Seals has been the city’s exclusive ambulance transportation services provider since 2016, also providing services to other Johnson County fire departments, including Franklin.
Heartland representatives say they’ll combine resources, expertise and personnel to deliver a “a seamless and efficient EMS response” with Greenwood Fire in their new partnership.
“We are thrilled to partner with the Greenwood Fire Department to enhance the level of emergency medical care available to the residents of Greenwood,” Heartland CEO Kenneth Jackson said in a statement. “By combining our strengths and resources, we are poised to deliver faster, more efficient and higher quality care, ultimately saving lives and improving health outcomes in our community.”
City officials are not renewing their contract with Seals due to issues the company is having with staffing ambulances for the city. The company operates three ambulances for the city, with the expectation they be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Mayor Mark Myers said.
But Seals has had trouble with getting staff and keeping the trucks staffed for at least the past year. Officials have talked with their management on “multiple occasions” about this, and while management has tried to do what they can to keep the truck staffed at an “acceptable level,” they’ve not been able to do so, Myers said.
Seals did not respond to a request for comment before deadline Thursday.
Once such instance of staffing issues was publicized in March 2023, when a viral Facebook post showed that all three of the city’s ambulances were out of service due to a staffing issue on a single day. The ambulances were temporarily out of service due to a staffing issue with Seals, which was caused by unexpected staff illness, fire officials and Seals representatives said.
In a statement at the time, James White, the general manager for Seals Ambulance, said the company reallocated resources to “quickly staff the ambulances and be once again ready for service.” Fire officials said ambulances from other nearby departments still provided coverage through pre-established mutual aid agreements during the outage.
Staffing issues continued, however.
After Greenwood Fire Chief Jaime Washel was sworn a year ago, he completed a review of the department’s operations and asked for input from each Greenwood Fire employee. One of the reoccurring complaints he heard was with the service provided by Seals, he said.
This started a months-long process of reviewing the concerns, researching and considering the best way to provide EMS for the city, Washel said. At the same time, officials continued to speak with Seals about the staffing issues, having multiple conversations with local management and telling them they were in violation of the city’s contract.
After months of research and interviewing potential companies, officials settled with Heartland.
“I think they have a great product. They’re very committed to providing the highest level of quality of service and being reliable, and being accountable,” Washel said.
Greenwood’s contract with Heartland has not been fully executed, but it likely will signed next week. The contract on the table is for one year, with future extensions possible. The ambulances would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Myers said.
Like the current contract with Seals, Heartland would provide three ambulances for the city. But with Station 95 on the city’s southeast side expected to come online in 2026, the city would add a fourth ambulance in the future — likely with Heartland, Washel said.
“That was important for me — for our department as well — was to ensure that we have plenty of coverage as our city grows,” Washel said.
The contract end date for Seals overlaps with the start date for Heartland, meaning Greenwood residents will not be without any ambulance coverage. If for some reason Seals decides to stop service sooner than Sept. 1, Heartland officials have said they can start sooner, Myers said.
Some firefighters did ask about the city starting its own ambulance service, but Myers said this isn’t financially feasible. The city would have to purchase new ambulances and work with the fire department to add additional firefighters to the trucks as well, Myers said.
Last year, the city’s fire department estimated that starting its own ambulance service could cost $3 to 4 million. Whereas, with Seals and Heartland, the city doesn’t pay anything. The companies make money by billing patients for transportation, Myers said.
Washel says the resources Heartland will bring to the city will enhance the quality of emergency medical services to residents and visitors. Heartland is very data-driven, has cameras and systems in place to ensure safety of all of their ambulances and is one of the highest-rated safety services in the county.
Heartland also has GPS locators in their ambulances, allowing fire command staff to see where all of the ambulances are in real-time, Washel said.
“We’ll have a situational awareness that we just didn’t have before with our current provider,” he said.
The provider is also looking into using “whole blood” transfusion for traumatic situations, instead of traditional methods, Washel said. A study by Boston University from January found that the earlier someone receives a whole blood transfusion in a trauma situation, the greater their odds of survival.
Myers, whose family previously ran an ambulance service, says the switch in providers will be good for the city and its residents.
“I understand what it takes to run an ambulance service and I am confident that Heartland will do a very good job, supply us with very good employees,” he said. “They are very well-versed in emergency medicine and this will be a good thing for the city and for our residents. They should have no concern whatsoever about us not providing anything but the absolute best service to the residents of Greenwood.”
Franklin Fire has experienced staffing issues “a time or two” but hasn’t had any significant problems with Seals, Mayor Steve Barnett said.
Two ambulances run by Seals serve the city right now, though the company has offered to bring a third to the city, Barnett said.
“It takes more staffing in Greenwood, so it’s gonna make sense that maybe you would have more of a problem where there’s more staffing needed,” he said.
In light of Greenwood’s provider change, Barnett plans to talk with Seals about staffing just to make sure residents continue to be well-covered, he said.
