AMR just short of Multnomah County's compliance standards after new ambulance model
PORTLAND, Ore. () – It's been seven months since Multnomah County commissioners approved key staffing changes to AMR's ambulances, to address in the area.
Last summer, the county settled its dispute with AMR. By August 15, to allow some ambulances to operate with one paramedic and one EMT, instead of requiring all of them to have two paramedics.
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The move aimed to ease the impact of a national paramedic shortage and improve response times.
Since then, AMR has hired over 45 new paramedics, with with anticipated graduation dates in 2025 and early 2026.
AMR is also implementing a new program to bring the BIPOC community into a career in EMS. They're offering 8 diversity scholarships in 2025 that will support communities of color with fully paid tuition for both EMT and paramedic school and guaranteed jobs when they graduate.
But despite these efforts, the county says AMR still hasn't met the 90% response time requirement in any month.
AMR says it's meeting 15 out of 16 compliance metrics — with response time being the only one still falling short.
'Currently we sit at 88% and change,' said Rob McDonald, AMR's regional manager for Oregon. 'What we know in our industry is making up 27% is difficult, but what we also know is making up the last 2% is also difficult. We're pretty confident that all data points to we should have this thing done.'
At its worst, AMR was only reaching 911 calls .
Some weeks, there were 20 to 30 hours where no ambulances were available — a situation known as 'Level 0.'
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In recent months, that's changed. Level 0 time is now down to just minutes per week, and in late March, it was eliminated entirely.
'We now have the power to mitigate burnout and fatigue,' McDonald said
At its worst crews were running 10-12 calls in a 12-hour period. That's now dropped down to 5-7 calls, which AMR said is a much more manageable workload for their employees.
'We're encouraged by the upward trend by AMR, however AMR hasn't quite reached response time compliance,' said Dr. Richard Bruno, Multnomah County Health Officer. 'While this is a bridge to meet those response times, it's also a bridge time for AMR to grow their workforce and get back to their core contract.'
What Dr. Bruno means by that is that allowing the hybrid model is only meant to be temporary until the paramedic shortage in the country and county eases.
AMR has accrued $8 million in fines for missing performance targets — none of which have been paid yet. They can reduce that amount, but only if they meet all compliance metrics, including the 90% response time.
The next official update is set for August, when the county will review year-over-year progress. At that point, they'll have to decide whether to continue, modify or terminate the settlement agreement
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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