2024 DeKalb County EMS Service Delivery Enhancements

• In February, DeKalb County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved $3.8 million in the 2024 budget to add 15 EMT/paramedics, five nurse practitioners, and five ambulances to enhance countywide service delivery.

• The county is in the process of installing a $5 million, state-of-the-art E-911 phone system.

• Fitch & Associates, a nationally known leader in EMS and Ambulance system consulting, is completing an objective review of DeKalb County’s EMS system.  

The Dunwoody Model

• Dunwoody Mayor Lynn Deutsch and the Dunwoody City Council voted to be the first city in DeKalb to take advantage of an opportunity provided in DeKalb County’s 2019 contract with AMR to secure supplemental ambulance service in its corporate limits. 

• Dunwoody’s decision to partner with DeKalb County and AMR to subsidize ambulance service has significantly improved response times by 4:35 minutes, or 32 percent.

• EMS response times before and after the Dunwoody model was implemented were:

  • (Before—Sept.16, 2023 – Dec.14, 2023)–14:10 minute average response time

  • (After—Dec. 15, 2023 – April 12, 2024)–9:35 average response time

• Dunwoody pays $566,000 annually to contract ambulance service for the city for 12 hours a day during peak service hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.