title: Leveling the playing field for EMS services.
abstract: Pinellas County's emergency medical services system is a public utility model EMS system where as the purchaser of services, the EMS Authority can achieve the highest-quality, most cost-effective and most reliable EMS services. Pinellas County's use of an absolute level-playing-field, non-political bidding process that isolated quality and pricing issues has raised the bar for government purchasing. The entire EMS industry has seen how contract services can be evaluated fairly, in a non-political atmosphere, for the betterment of the citizens of the community. Our EMS Authority voted to award the contract to the best overall proposal based on fact and merit. The new agreement allows us to provide significantly improved paramedic ambulance services to our citizens at a substantial cost reduction to the county.
authors.affiliation: ckearns@co.pinellas.fl.us
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kearns
mesh_terms: D003164:Competitive Bidding / Q000458:organization & administration; D003406:Credentialing; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005431:Florida