AMR defends response times

Adrienne Packer

Friday, Jan. 14, 2000 | 11:13 a.m.

American Medical Response officials scrambling to defend their company from "false statements" about its performance were willing Thursday to stray from their agenda to discuss their rival's latest woes.

Weeks after Southwest Ambulance used the firing of the chief executive officer for AMR's parent company, Laidlaw Inc., and the resignation of AMR's president to prove the company is unstable, it lost a top official of its own.

John Furman, chief executive officer for Rural/Metro Corp. -- which provides funding to Southwest Ambulance through a joint venture agreement -- resigned early this week amid the company's plummeting stock prices.

"I find it a bit interesting that our opponent made such a big deal of Laidlaw's CEO leaving only to have their own CEO resign," said Trace Skeen, AMR's acting chief executive.

Rural/Metro administrators shrugged off Furman's departure and the struggling stock prices, which as of Thursday had dropped to $5 a share -- a 70 percent decrease since 1995.

Liz Merritt, a spokeswoman for Rural/Metro in its hometown of Scottsdale, Ariz., said stocks have fallen in the health care industry as a whole and had nothing to do with Furman's departure. She said the drop has been caused by concerns over reimbursements; medical companies cannot always collect from Medicare and Medicaid patients.

"Denials of claims cause us to not be able to collect on transports and that impairs our business," Merritt said.

Skeen admitted that AMR's stock isn't doing much better. Laidlaw Inc. put AMR up for sale earlier this year because of lagging investments in medical care.

Merritt said the falling stock prices will not affect Southwest Ambulance's ability to expand. Southwest has applied for an ambulance service franchise, which for 45 years has been dominated by AMR or its predecessor Mercy Ambulance.

Clark County Commissioners accepted Southwest's application last month, but whether the company will be granted a franchise is contingent on how the Las Vegas and North Las Vegas city councils vote.

The two city councils postponed their votes after AMR filed a lawsuit against the county contending Southwest's application was incomplete.

But the delay has hardly spiked Southwest's effort to win a portion of the valley.

Knowing that the valley's local governments are exploring the idea of expanding their own medical transport services, Southwest executives traveled to California today with North Las Vegas firefighters to observe San Diego's medical response system.

San Diego is one city where Rural/Metro won a tough battle with AMR by entering an agreement with San Diego firefighters to jointly provide fire and emergency medical services. Meanwhile, AMR administrators filled a conference room Thursday with charts and graphs in an effort to fend off ongoing accusations made by Southwest Ambulance. Southwest, whose administrators are former AMR employees, claim AMR is not complying with its franchise agreement.

Southwest's executive co-partner John Wilson contends AMR does not respond to emergency calls within the required nine minutes and that the company's number of exemptions have increased significantly.

Exemptions are allowed for unavoidable circumstances such as floods, passing trains or non-existent addresses.

On Thursday, Skeen said the company is concerned residents might begin believing the "innuendo" spread by Southwest Ambulance.

"We're concerned that (rumors) are starting to erode the public's confidence," said Skeen, a former Rural/Metro employee. "We don't need people putting Grandma in the back of the car and rushing her to the hospital."

Skeen and AMR's operation manager Brian Rogers, who said the company's response times have been in compliance since it was granted a franchise agreement in 1996, again explained why its number of exemptions have increased.

The primary reasons are because of a recent policy change and because hospitals are on divert rotation.

The recent policy change requires emergency medical technicians to stop response time clocks when they reach a patient's side, rather than when they arrive at the address. They might reach a major resort within the required nine minutes, but it could take another five minutes to reach the patient.

The divert rotation is due to overcrowded hospital emergency rooms. Medical technicians sometimes have to wait by a patient's side up to two hours before a bed becomes available. And that, Rogers said, keeps crews off the street.

"That is not an ambulance issue, it's a community issue," Rogers said. "We cannot control that."

Rogers said the company is adding to its crews so one paramedic can stay at the hospital with a patient while rest of the ambulance crew can continue to answer calls. He is also putting additional ambulances on the street.

Wilson reiterated that Southwest believes AMR's medical staff is performing well, but company officials simply feel the valley needs two ambulance services.

"Why not take a look and see what makes sense?" Wilson said Thursday. "We don't need to keep doing the status quo. We've been doing that for 45 years."

Also on Thursday, an Arizona administrative law judge denied AMR's application to provide service in the Tuscon area, where Rural/Metro currently operates.

Judge Grant Winston confirmed what has been a constant knock on AMR -- the company's reluctance to release its records and its unknown future.

"AMR's future lies behind a locked door, where no one can see it and no one can know it," the judge wrote.

"AMR currently has a price tag dangling from its very certificate of incorporation. Clearly then, based on what is known of AMR's past, and what cannot be known of AMR's future, the integrity of AMR is not what is should be."