KNOX COUNTY, Tenn. — Knox County leaders said they wanted to see improvements in response times for American Medical Response, the county's only ambulance provider. AMR is now in the third month of its new contract with the county but has yet to meet the set goal of 90% success in response times.
AMR was given new guidelines for response times depending on the area and severity of the call. For example, Priority One calls are life-threatening. If a call is inside the Knoxville city limits, AMR has 10 minutes to respond. Outside of the city limits, AMR has 20 minutes.
"There's geographic challenges. There's traffic challenges, there's, you know, population density challenges that we see," said Josh Spencer, the Regional Director for AMR. "Naturally, the more the more calls you have in one zone, the harder the more you have to kind of get right to move the needle forward."
Response time rates were lower in February within the city limits, for example. AMR said part of that is dealing with a new system and adjusting their staffing and ambulances.
"We took the first month's data in February, that was our first time we ever really studied this new system," Spencer said. "The data suggested that, really, we didn't have our ambulances positioned in the right places. So we've reworked our deployment plan."
Still, response times have not met the county's goal of a 90% performance rate. Overall, they sit at around 85%.
AMR has made steady progress in the three months of the new contract and has increased its staffing by 31%. Although it has already met a benchmark in staffing, it hopes to increase the number of EMTs from 240 to 260.
Spenser said the provider struggles to predict when an emergency will happen, and every day is different. He says it's a "moving target" to see what the county needs.
"We have seen about 25% increase in our total unit, our deployment in the last six months," Spenser said. "As far as predictive analysis, you know, there's no way to really know when there's gonna be an emergency or when someone's gonna lead 911."
For families who are waiting for an ambulance in a life-or-death situation, minutes count.
"If that was my family member, I would be equally concerned," Spenser said. "What we're learning from those situations and how to improve for the next time. And that's what we're focused on. And that's our priority."
AMR will provide the next report on their progress at a Knox County Commission meeting in August.