A move earlier this summer by Rural/Metro Corp. to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has captured the interest of state officials – both the Department of Health Services (DHS) and the …
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A move earlier this summer by Rural/Metro Corp. to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has captured the interest of state officials – both the Department of Health Services (DHS) and the Legislature.
DHS Director Will Humble told The Arizona Republic in September that the Rural/Metro bankruptcy made him “a lot nervous,” and he was launching an investigation into the company’s ambulance response times.
Rural/Metro is the state’s largest emergency medical transport service and operates in the entire Valley as the owner of both Southwest and PMT ambulance services.
The company’s industry dominance has prompted the Legislature to form an ad hoc committee, headed by District 23 Representative Michelle Ugenti of Scottsdale, to discuss ambulance deregulation.
The committee’s recommendations will be considered by lawmakers in the next session.
While DHS is interested in whether Rural/Metro ambulance operations are meeting response times dictated by the “certificate of need” (CON) with which the company operates, there are no issues with service in Fountain Hills, according to Fountain Hills Fire Chief Randy Roberts.
Roberts, a Rural/Metro employee, said the company is making it a priority to assure service standards within Fountain Hills.
In fact, the company recently assigned a third ambulance unit to operate part-time out of Fountain Hills.
Response time
Roberts said in researching information to answer questions posed by The Times, he found that the average ambulance time for Fountain Hills is eight minutes on 90 percent of all emergency transports.
That is two minutes less than the response time required by the CON under which the company operates.
The response time outline in the CON identifies nine “sub-operating” stations, including Fountain Hills.
From those locations the response time requirements are 10 minutes, 90 percent of the time; 15 minutes, 95 percent of the time; and 20 minutes 100 percent of the time on all emergency transports.
The current Rural/Metro CON was issued in February 2011 and expires at the end of November.
According to Roberts, the department’s primary concern is getting Advanced Life Support emergency personnel to the patient in the least amount of time.
He said that is generally personnel assigned to fire trucks, which have a more strict response time requirement under the Rural/Metro contract with the Town of Fountain Hills.
That response requirement is five minutes, 90 percent of the time.
Roberts said there is an issue with meeting that requirement, which has been identified for some time.
The town is currently working on a plan to relocate Fire Station No. 2, which would address those response time issues.
Currently they are meeting the response time criteria for the trucks about 88 percent of the time, just shy of the 90 percent threshold.
Roberts said it is important to remember that the fire service contract with the town is a separate issue from ambulance service, which is regulated by the state.
“Fountain Hills has an excellent EMS system that works very well by any standard,” Roberts said.
Move-up system
The ambulance configuration currently within Fountain Hills has a unit based in Station No. 2, but is usually posted during daytime hours at Station No. 1 on Palisades Boulevard.
That is the primary location for ambulance posting in town, according to Roberts.
A second ambulance is based in the Fry’s shopping center off Shea Boulevard at Eagle Mountain Parkway. This unit is normally posted at this location when it is in town.
The most recent ambulance is assigned to operate from 12 noon to 12 midnight in Fountain Hills.
Fountain Hills is near the center of a strip of the CON area in northeast Maricopa County.
That strip stretches from Cave Creek to East Mesa and the Pinal County line.
On occasions when all ambulances in Fountain Hills are busy, a move-up will be initiated with an ambulance from the east moving to Fountain Hills until one of the assigned units returns to posting in the community.
“Our goal is to keep Fountain Hills always at level one,” Roberts said.
