<font face="verdana" size="1" color =#CC0000><b>* New * </b></font> Monroe County ambulance provider will cease operations

3/31/2005

MONROE Monroe County s financially-struggling ambulance provider has announced that it will cease operations next week, with services to be provided instead by two different companies on an emergency basis.

Richard Levine, owner of Hart Medical EMS, told the Monroe County Emergency Medical Authority that he could no longer afford to operate his struggling start-up business. EMA chairman Mike Dempski said Mr. Levine plans to shut down Wednesday.

In Hart s place, Toledo-based Promedica will handle emergency transports south of the River Raisin, while American Medical Response of Greenwood Village, Colo., the county s former ambulance provider, will take responsibility for those north of the river.

Representatives of both Promedica and AMR were at Hart s offices in Monroe this morning interviewing employees for prospective positions with their firms, a Hart dispatcher said.

Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com.