By Ryan Maye Handy
The Gazette
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — An independent ambulance contract has brought more than a $1 million to Colorado Springs’ general fund, and more urban residents into a faster response zone.
Those improvements were high on the list of what the city wanted when it separated its medical response contract from El Paso County more than a year ago.
Since the city and county split their American Medical Response contract in December 2013, the Colorado Springs Fire Department has been pleased with AMR’s service in the city, where ambulance crews regularly exceed response time expectations, said Ted Collas, deputy chief of support services . Taking over its own contract has also meant the fire department could have a single medical director oversee both firefighter and AMR paramedics, Collas added.
“This is the first time in the city, that I know of, that we have a single medical director,” he said. The fire department can call on the expertise of doctors at both Colorado Springs hospital systems. “So it’s the best of both worlds, as far as I am concerned, because we have access to both hospitals.”
After the city and county severed their joint ambulance service contract, Colorado Springs entered into its own contract April 1, 2014. The split has had no adverse effects on the county’s ambulance service since, said Jim Reid, executive director of the county’s Public Services Department.
There are some differences between the city and county services when it comes to costs, response times and distance to cover, however.
Without the city’s involvement, the county reconfigured its Emergency Services Authority, a board that oversees ambulance service for areas in the county including Monument, Palmer Lake and Security-Widefield. The authority’s focus is on the county’s future, particularly as the rural areas become more suburban or urban, Reid said. Ambulances working for the county have 2,100 square miles to cover, an area that will become more densely populated. The board is planning for five to 10 years from now, Reid said.
Meanwhile, the split contract has put more Colorado Springs residents into AMR’s “urban zone,” where ambulances are required to reach callers within 8 minutes more than 92 percent of the time, or face a fine, Collas said. In 2014, AMR reached callers within the required thresholds 96.5 percent of the time. AMR crews have responded to calls in 2015 within the required times 96 percent of the time, he said.
In Colorado Springs, AMR crews face two standards for response times to “code 3" or emergency calls - a citywide compliance standard and an individual response standard - and have to meet both to avoid incurring fines. Citywide standards require crews to reach urban patients within 8 minutes, suburban patients within 12 and rural patients with 20 minutes, Collas said. The thresholds are slightly higher for the individual standards - 12 minutes for urban calls, 18 minutes for suburban calls and 30 minutes for rural calls.
The county has several thresholds for response times - 12, 20, 25, 35 and 45 minutes, said Laura Saenz, community relations coordinator for AMR.
“Obviously, El Paso County is a large county,” he said. “Those outlying rural areas are going to have a longer response time.”
The number of ambulances working in the city and county can vary from day to day, based on historical calls for service, Saenz said.
“We model it by trending call volume from day to day, so we do watch our numbers closely,” she said. “And on any given day, we can somewhat predict how many calls we are going to have all day long, so we base our staffing on that.”
April marks the start of AMR’s busy season, when warm weather drives people outdoors. The company will increase its staffing numbers, particularly on weekends, to accommodate the need. “The warmer months, from April until October, are our busiest time,” Saenz said. “People are more active ... People are driving faster. In the summer months, people tend to be a little bit more reckless.”
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©2015 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)