Discussions about a possible merger between the Huntsville Hospital system and Huntsville Emergency Medical Services Inc. , is informal and in the early stages, HEMSI CEO Jon Howell confirmed Friday.
“They said, ‘We’ve got a north Alabama regional EMS system that is developing just organically’ and then they looked at it and they said, ‘Oh, well, you know, HEMSI is kind of the hole in this area,’” HEMSI Board President David Blair said in a recent interview with Huntsville television station WAFF.
“This may be an opportunity to get in on the ground floor” of something good for HEMSI and the region, Howell said. “That got the talks going.” HEMSI has decades of history in Madison County itself. It has operated since 1981 and Howell has been with the service since 1984. The ambulance service was originally formed by Huntsville Hospital, he said, after a private local service went bankrupt.