Ambulance service has a good year

By Reed Williams

Published: December 22, 2008

After its first year running the city's emergency medical-response operations, the Richmond Ambulance Authority says it is doing a better job of meeting required response times.

Late last year, the ambulance authority terminated its five-year contract with American Medical Response after the company had failed over several months to meet required response times for life-threatening-emergency calls.

The ambulance authority took full control of the city's ambulance response and emergency medical personnel in November 2007. Since then, the authority has met response times for life-threatening calls every month, officials said.

"It's been very, very gratifying," said Dr. Joseph P. McMenamin, chairman of the ambulance authority's board. "We all had some concerns about taking this step because we had a long history with AMR."

AMR, with headquarters in Greenwood Village, Colo., is the largest private provider of ambulance services in the country. The company had provided ambulance services in Richmond for 11 years. Its contract with Richmond was worth $9 million last year.

The city requires that an ambulance arrive within a prescribed time period on at least 90 percent of its runs.

The prescribed time periods are:

A spokesman for AMR was contacted twice this week but did not provide any comment. Last year, a company official said Richmond had one of the most stringent contracts of any municipality in the country when it came to requiring swift response times by its ambulance service. She also cited a nationwide shortage of paramedics.

Since the ambulance authority took control of operations, it has been in compliance every month for all 911 calls, it says. Its only failure to comply came in June, when it responded to 89.6 percent of non-emergency patient transports in under one hour.

Jerry Overton, chief executive officer of the ambulance authority, said the authority does not calculate average citywide response times because such a focus could result in underserving some harder-to-get-to areas.

For the improvements in compliance, Overton credits better positioning of ambulances, including keeping some on the perimeter of downtown instead of in the middle of it, where rush-hour traffic was slowing ambulances.

"I'm glad to hear response times have improved," said City Councilwoman Kathy C. Graziano, who used to sit on the ambulance authority's board. "I think that the citizens of Richmond are very lucky to have such a well-run ambulance authority."

The ambulance authority is a government entity created by the state legislature to provide emergency medical services to the city of Richmond. It has an annual operating budget of $13.7 million, about $3.8 million of which comes from the city.

The authority has about 250 employees, including 72 paramedics and 89 emergency medical technicians.
Contact Reed Williams at (804) 649-6332 or .