STAT Southcoast will continue as the town’s primary provider of emergency ambulance services through at least 2026.

The Select Board unanimously approved the new five-year contract with the EMS service during their Monday, Dec. 6 meeting. 

“The substance of the contract is the same,” as the previous one, Town Administrator Shawn MacInnes said. “We think the contract is fair for both parties.” 

While it remains roughly the same, the agreement does include some significant changes.

Under the new contract, STAT will agree to pay the Town of Dartmouth $148,782 with annual increases each year of the agreement. By 2026, the EMS provider will pay the town $159,707.97.

In the previous contract, STAT paid $95,000 a year.

The terms also require the company to have two vehicles that have less than a year’s worth of service and less than 10,000 miles on the odometer.

The new deal also comes with time constraints. 

For code 1 and code 2 calls (more time-urgent calls), they have to respond with an eight-minute and 12-second average on a monthly basis. For code 3 calls (non-urgent calls), ambulance drivers must meet an average monthly response time of 20 minutes.

Under the previous terms, calls were set at six and 15 minutes. MacInnes said the reason for the change was based on a recent review of call times and finding the eight minutes to be more in line with the “real world actual.”

“We thought that was a fair assessment [and] expectation,” MacInnes said. “Much of the response time is out of the control of the vendor as it is.”

The Faunce Corner Road company will also continue to conduct free emergency medical education to the town upon the request of the town administrator or police chief.

MacInnes noted that personnel from STAT “have volunteered to do quite a bit of training” in town, including training lifeguards this past summer in a year that saw a significant shortage of guards. 

The town administrator also highlighted the company’s willingness to provide assistance at the town-run Covid-19 vaccination clinics earlier in the year.

The ambulance provider has been contracted by the Town of Dartmouth for more than 30 years.

“We think it’s a good relationship” with the EMS provider, MacInnes said. “They provide us a number of services — they’re committed to the community.”