Barrow emergency chief calls reporting of licensure issue ‘misinformation’ and ‘lies’

The chief of Barrow County Emergency Services on Dec. 8 sent his entire staff an email claiming that “misinformation” and even “lies” were being disseminated — apparently by the local media — about the recent lapse of the county’s Emergency Medical Services license.

“There is a lot of misinformation being broadcast about our department and the lapse of our EMS license,” Dennis Merrifield wrote in the email addressed to the department’s administration, all fire and EMS employees, and the staff of the E-911 communications center.

“The best lies always have some truth and then a lot of twisting of the facts,” he added. “Then there are those with very vivid imaginations.”

He told his staff that the financial loss from forfeited ambulance fees would be “much less than what is currently being touted,” and he asked his employees not to “fall into the trap of spreading misinformation.”

The truth, he said, “will come out.”

The email coincided with the Dec. 8 posting of updated loss figures on the Journal’s website. The figures came from the packet of information for the Dec. 13 meeting of the Barrow County Board of Commissioners.

Tuesday night, CFO Rose Kisaalita reiterated those same figures to the BOC. She said the county responded to 357 emergency calls from Aug. 28-Sept. 28 when the county did not have a state license to operate its EMS services, and the total estimated billings amounted to about $293,000.

However, as previously reported online, she said the “net” loss would be $159,120, because Medicare and Medicaid do not pay their full invoices, and many patients without insurance do not pay and their accounts are referred to collections.

Comments

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#1 Jack Legg on 12/14/11 at 12:21 PM [Reply]

typical response from a department head who is on the ropes and going down.
The bigger story here is something else though.
That e-mail was probably not sent to the Barrow Journal by the chief.If it was sent to county employees from a county computer to another county computer that makes the communication the legal property of Barrow County and if a county employee then forwarded that e-mail on to the news paper from a county computer OR through a county wyfi connection on a personal laptop orsmartphone , then that county employee would be guilty of violating county policy in a professional run county government.Then that employee would be subject to disciplinary proceedings in a well run county govt.Are these policies in place here in barrow ? I dont know but the answer is probably not with yearwood running the day to day operations.

#1.1 Mike Buffington, Publisher on 12/14/11 at 01:35 PM [Reply]

The documents we got came from an open records request.

#1.1.1 Anonymous on 12/14/11 at 02:29 PM [Reply]

and that just goes to show that you should always delete your emails both sent and recieved

#1.1.1.1 Mike Buffington on 12/14/11 at 02:41 PM [Reply]

Public employees can't do that. It is public business, not private.

#1.1.1.1.1 Jack Legg on 12/14/11 at 02:52 PM [Reply]

Thats what I would say too , if I were trying to protect my sources on the "inside"

#1.1.1.1.1.1 Mike Buffington on 12/14/11 at 04:21 PM [Reply]

It's the law.

#2 ok on 12/14/11 at 12:55 PM [Reply]

and the taxpayers on this county. You are just dumb

#3 bobby on 12/14/11 at 01:18 PM [Reply]

is anybody policing this page? what the he%$ does number 2 poster mean what topic is he trying to talk about this is a story about emailing .get a clue buddy jack is on track with this one

#3.1 Anon on 12/14/11 at 02:53 PM [Reply]

bobby, given the lack of spelling on his/her part, Im not sure either. The artcilce is about emails, we can read. leg is saying it is county property, plain and simple, this is public business and the county does not own emails. Really??? Buddy jack! guess you putt from another green

#4 Mike your wrong on 12/14/11 at 03:08 PM [Reply]

I don't have the link but the supreme court ruled in a case of a school district last year that those emails are NOT public record and you can NOT use open records on them.
Better get your lawyer on that ASAP.

#4.1 Minnie on 12/14/11 at 04:09 PM [Reply]

Yeah...find that link. You're the one in the wrong on that one. Those emails are open record.

#5 Mike Buffington on 12/14/11 at 04:20 PM [Reply]

Perhaps some student records are closed, but not general school emails. Go ask the former superintendent in Madison County about that.
Generally, just about every document held by a government agency is open. There are some exceptions, but there is no argument about it in this article.

#5.1 student records on 12/14/11 at 05:01 PM [Reply]

Student records are closed by law. Teachers emails are open records

#6 interesting on 12/18/11 at 07:29 AM [Reply]

So, the chief thinks he can assuage his employees and critics over the licensure debacle and subsequent financial loss?

Maybe he is a magician. Let's see what he pulls out of his hat. I'm not optimistic.

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Barrow emergency chief calls reporting of licensure issue ...

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Barrow emergency chief calls reporting of licensure issue ‘misinformation’ and ‘lies’

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