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CASS COUNTY — A local ambulance service has abruptly closed its doors, leaving several Cass County cities and towns scrambling.

Pride Care Ambulance Service terminated all services and employees as of 7 a.m. Friday, according to the Cass County Medical Control Authority. 911 services will be covered by a group of local EMS agencies who are working together to prevent any disruption in service for impacted communities.

Affected municipalities and organizations are taking the steps to figure out how to proceed:

According to the CCMCA, the Cass County Dispatch Center and EMS agencies have been preparing for this transition to ensure that its EMS system continues to be ready to respond to all medical emergencies in its communities and countywide. All requests for emergency ambulance service should continue to be made by calling “911”.

Designated by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, CCMCA is responsible, under the Michigan Public Health Code, for supervising and coordinating EMS in Cass County. In a Friday news release, CCMCA thanked Pride Care for its years of servicing the county.

“While we understand that this news can be difficult, rest assured that there are ongoing collaborative efforts to put into place both short- and long-term solutions,” the statement reads. “This will be a joint effort by city and county representatives, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), Cass County Dispatch, other local EMS agencies, Cass County MCA and leadership at Ascension Borgess-Lee Hospital. Continue to utilize ‘911’ for your medical emergencies.”

Pride Care Ambulance was a wholly owned subsidiary of Coloma Emergency Ambulance, Inc. a Michigan corporation. One of the largest ambulance services in Southwest Michigan, Pride Care provided more than 60,000 requests for service including Critical Care, Advanced Life Suport, Basic Life Support and wheelchair transports on an annual basis throughout Kalamazoo, Berrien, Cass, Barry and Van Buren Counties. 

Pride Care serviced several municipalities in Cass County including the City of Dowagiac, Silver Creek Township, Wayne Township, Keeler Township, Penn Township, Volinia Township, LaGrange Township and more. In June, Pride Care stopped service in all of Kalamazoo County. In March, Pride Care stopped service to Portage and Comstock and Texas townships.

This is a developing story. Leaderpub.com will be updated as more information becomes available.