Supervisors hear ambulance proposals as city considers change

Published 5:13 pm Monday, February 2, 2026

Lauderdale County supervisors on Monday heard proposals from three ambulance providers as county officials consider joining efforts by the city of Meridian to change their emergency medical provider.

Emergency calls in the city of Meridian and Lauderdale County are currently answered by Metro Ambulance, a government department formed in the 1980s as a joint effort between the city and county. The city of Meridian, and later Lauderdale County, pulled out of active participation in Metro in following years, and the ambulance service now operates on payments from insurance and billing with no direct government contributions.

County officials and city leaders heard from Acadian Ambulance Service, Priority Ambulance, which operates Magnolia Ambulance in Mississippi, and Pafford EMS about their proposals to take over emergency medicine needs in Meridian and Lauderdale County.

Justin Back, president of Acadian Ambulance Service, said his company was founded in 1971 in Lafayette, Louisiana. It now operates in four states and has been in Mississippi for more than 25 years.

One of the things that sets Acadian apart is its in-house training, Back said, with more than 3,000 emergency medical technicians being trained by the company each year. The company partners with local colleges to set up campuses in every community it operates in, he said, and training future EMTs is a big part of the company’s longterm staffing strategy.

“America stopped coming to EMS during the pandemic. The pandemic exacerbated a bad staffing situation,” he said. “We had to learn to go after America and going from 700 to 3,000 people per year doesn’t happen on its own. It happens by having a very expensive, very big, very laborious but very professional infrastructure that trains people.’

Acadian’s proposal would have 12 ambulances stationed in Lauderdale County with monthly reports about response times and other metrics made to the Board of Supervisors monthly. Additionally, Beck said, the company has a dashboard that will allow hospitals, firefighters and others to see exactly where ambulances are when they are needed.

Dwayne Tullos, Southern Region president for Priority Ambulance, said his company approaches things a little bit differently. Instead of having a pool of ambulances to respond to both 911 emergency calls and nonemergency transport, his proposal separates the two with a dedicated workforce for each.

Priority Ambulance’s proposal will include eight advanced life support, or ALS, ambulances for 911 calls during the day and five a night. An additional two ALS ambulances will be on hand 24 hours per day for nonemergency transportation, with another two basic life support, or BLS, ambulances available 12 hours per day.

Tullos said the nonemergency transport ambulances will be able to respond to 911 calls if they are needed, but the dedicated 911 fleet will mean emergency care isn’t tied up in transport when its needed.

“Looking at it separately and putting a core 911 deployment up and then an IFT (Inter-Facility Transfer) deployment up, now we’ve created a situation where the IFT can back up the 911 versus the other way around,” he said.

Pafford EMS Director of Operations for Mississippi Daniel Cross said his company’s proposal follows a similar model with separate fleets for 911 calls and nonemergency transport. In weighing proposals, he urged local officials to avoid placing too much emphasis on the number of ambulances provided and focus on response times instead.

“It shouldn’t matter to you whether there’s 100 trucks in this city or this county or is there one, but are my response times getting met,” he said. “That’s the question you’ve got.”

Cross said Pafford’s model is to adapt and evolve to meet the needs of the community it’s serving, and that means the number of ambulances needed may change. More ambulances may be needed when big events are scheduled or during high school football season, while the community can be served with fewer ambulances in slow periods.

Terry Wages, chief of staff for Pafford EMS, said the company currently operates in more than 25 Mississippi counties, including the cities of Gulfport and Biloxi on the coast, counties and cities in the Delta, and in North Mississippi. The company prides itself on being scalable and being able to respond to any questions or concerns quickly and efficiently.

Wages said local officials will receive a daily report of calls made by Pafford, including when the call came in, when the truck left, when it arrived, when contact was made and more.

Representatives from all three companies said their proposals do not include any request for a direct subsidy from the county.

Supervisor Josh Tod, who serves as board president, said the meeting Monday was held for county leaders to listen, not to take action. All three presentations were taken under advisement.