By Laura Snider
The Daily Camera
BOULDER, Colo. — Ambulances run by American Medical Response will begin responding to 911 calls in unincorporated Boulder County next year after the longtime contract that the county has shared with the city of Boulder expires at the end of December.
Now, the city and the county share five ambulances that are operated by Pridemark Paramedic Services. Earlier this year, the city chose to put its ambulance contract out to bid and to not include unincorporated Boulder County in the contract.
County officials have been working since then to secure their own ambulance service, though it’s been difficult because it is more expensive for ambulance services to operate in rural areas than urban ones.
“We went into a (bidding) process to attract and select an ambulance provider for Boulder County,” Sheriff Joe Pelle told the county commissioners at a Tuesday morning business meeting. “This was complicated by the fact that the city of Boulder has elected to do their own ambulance contract. So the level of interest that we had and the proposals that we had were far different than they had been in past times.”
Both AMR and Pridemark submitted proposals to the county. On Tuesday, the county commissioners approved Pelle’s request to go with AMR, which will dedicate one ambulance to the unincorporated county.
When more than one ambulance is needed, AMR will be able to draw on ambulances that it keeps in Boulder and Longmont to transfer patients between medical facilities.
One of the main reasons for choosing AMR was the cost, Pelle said. Both Pridemark and AMR proposed charging patients a similar base fee and mileage rate, Pelle said, but only Pridemark asked the county for an additional financial subsidy, which would cost in the neighborhood of $392,000 a year for one ambulance.
“AMR is willing to enter into this contract at no cost,” Pelle said. “AMR will be operating their 911 ambulance at a loss, basically, but the benefit to them is that it’s one more ambulance in their system.”
AMR has run the 911 ambulance service for the city and county in the past and the company currently provides emergency services in Longmont, according to Chad Fahlenkamp, general manager of AMR.
“AMR has a long history of serving in Boulder County,” Fahlenkamp said. “We’ve been up there for decades providing ambulance services.”
The city of Boulder has also received bids from Pridemark and AMR, but the city does not plan to make a decision until the first week of August, according to David Cain, Boulder’s deputy fire chief of operations.
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