After a heated debate, the Knox County Commissioners renewed the county's ambulance service contract with American Medical Response, or AMR, during their meeting Monday night.
Commissioners questioned how the company was overcoming a corporate merger of its parent company with the goal of making sure everyone gets high quality service for the right price.
It took nearly two hours for commissioners to finally approve the county's ambulance service contract.
"The commissioners are absolutely correct," said Christopher Blach, regional director for the South Region at AMR. "This is a very important decision on their part."
But it was time well spent for Commission Chairman Dave Wright, who repeated the goal throughout the discussion: get the best service for Knox County.
Blach thinks his company fits the bill.
"We're held strictly accountable to our performance standards," said Blach.
The contract says AMR has to score at least a 12 out of 20 on a performance review - the company scored a 16.
They're graded on different aspects of service, such as response times for ambulances, and if they don't meet requirement, the contract could be terminated.
"The contract requires that we respond to 90% of our requests for service in under 10 minutes," said Blach. "And currently month to date, we are 93% compliant."
The commissioners had questions after AMR faced challenges a couple of years ago, which is why it lost points in two areas on the Knox County Health Department's performance review.
"There was a nationwide shortage of EMS professionals," said Blach, as he explained why the company lost points.
To remedy the problem, Blach says AMR is giving incentives to some of the best EMS workers to come work in Knox County through sign-on bonuses and better salaries.
They also lost points on their clinical services. Blach says they focused too much on nationwide medicine, not local medicine.
"That's why we had our clinical manager and our medical director step forward the last two meetings and really talk about the great things that are happening in Knoxville with our clinical programs," said Blach.
Blach also mentioned they're investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition for EMS career paths at Roane State Community College to add to the workforce.