BATON ROUGE — For decades, Acadian Ambulance Service has dominated the Non-Emergency Ambulance Transportation market in East Baton Rouge. This is for services not handled by Baton Rouge EMS, like transporting patients from hospitals, assisted living centers, and nursing homes.

Acadian also assists with emergency calls, although only when requested by Baton Rouge EMS.  

However, EBR Mayor-President Sid Edwards is poised to open the door of the non-emergency ambulance market for Baton Rouge General, which says it has requested permission to apply for an ambulance service permit for East Baton Rouge Parish.

"Both Acadian and BRG are rockstars in our community," Edwards said. "BRG wanted the permission originally to run four ambulances, you know, transport. I went back to them and I said, well, if you're going to run ambulances, I'd like you to run emergency service too for our citizens, and they agreed. It's not a whole fleet, it's four. I just felt that I had to make the decision, and I felt it was the right decision to do from a competitive standpoint and for our citizens."

Baton Rouge General must get a certificate of need approved, which its Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Meghan Parrish, says will take place on August 15, as long as certain requirements are met.

BRG believes it will be approved because of a court ruling in the 1990s that upheld the parish's ability to allow competition in ambulance services.

They also cited a 2022 study by the Rural Health Research and Policy Centers, which found that EBR was a "Ambulance Desert." Parrish told WBRZ that it refers to an area where residents live more than 25 minutes outside of an ambulance service area.

BRG says that it meets all state licensing requirements and is already licensed in Ascension and Livingston parishes. BRG also said it has requested a certificate of need in EBR several times in hopes of being permitted in the parish.

Acadian Ambulance argues that local ordinance shows that before a private ambulance company can be approved, the city or parish must show that there's a need for more.

"The ordinance is very clear, for an incoming private ambulance service to gain a certificate of operation, a need and necessity needs to be established by the parish or by the city, or by the Mayor's office and what I mean by that is that the current provider is not doing their job, is not fulfilling the needs of the parish and either there are complaints or letters or things that are coming to the Mayor's office, and to my knowledge there is not," Acadian Ambulance Service Director of Operations Porter Taylor said.

If the certificate of need is approved, the next step would be permit approval, which is also called a certificate of operation. However, Acadian says they would be transparent if they felt they did not have enough to cover the area.

"We've expressed our concern and we've expressed our desire to show us where the need and necessity is, and then we'll play, but unfortunantely, we haven't seen any of that, and this need for competition, from what I understand, is based on some case law back in the late 90s," Taylor said.

One thing that Acadian is upset about is that BRG's request, initially approved by previous EBR Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome last December, was rescinded in January, only to be reversed.

"When the previous administration gave their certificate of operation, outside of the ordinance, and didn't notify anybody, the current administration recognized that and sent a letter saying that it is invalid, and now they have changed their position," Taylor said.

WBRZ attempted to get in contact with Broome but was unsuccessful.

Acadian says they consider themselves team players and are willing to work with BRG, calling themselves teammates and friends for EMS and pre-hospital care and in-care services in the community.

"All we're asking is for the ordinance to be followed. Please follow the process. Ordinances are in place to protect the integrity of our EMS system. Somebody has to protect the integrity of it, so that's why there are laws," Taylor said.

Edwards says that the way he made the decision is that four more ambulances serving the citizens of Baton Rouge can't be a bad thing.