The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners has been briefed on updates concerning American Medical Response Northwest, Inc. (AMR)'s efforts to improve ambulance response times. This update comes eight months into a 12-month settlement agreement made last August to address persistent issues with response times that had been plaguing the county for over two years. The settlement, as reported by Multnomah County News, was designed to experiment with a new staffing model in the hopes of reaching AMR's contractual obligations.
Under the terms of the agreement, which was unanimously approved by the Board following a four-month mediation period, AMR was permitted until November 1, 2024, to align with these new staffing models. Running as many as 10 to 12 calls in a 12-hour period was not uncommon for AMR crews before the changes, but following the adjustments, the load has been significantly lessened to five to seven calls per shift, according to AMR's regional director, Rob McDonald, in a statement obtained by Multnomah County News.
Despite these improvements, AMR has yet to fully meet the agreed-upon response times for immediate, life-threatening calls. Dr. Richard Bruno, the County Health Officer, remarked, "We're encouraged by the upward trend from AMR," but emphasized that they have yet to reach "contract response time compliance." These comments were reported by Multnomah County News. AMR, however, has seen its performance match the contract requirement for the less urgent, non-emergency calls.
On the staffing front, AMR has been ramping up its workforce, having onboarded 122 EMTs and hired 28 new paramedics. An additional 18 paramedics have graduated through AMR’s scholarship program, and 75 more EMT and paramedic students are expected to graduate between 2025 and early 2026, as Multnomah County News details. These additional staff members will further strengthen the county's emergency medical response capabilities.
The board was additionally updated on AMR's considerable increase in ambulance fleet numbers. From averaging 43 ambulances per day back in July 2024, the operations have scaled up to an average of 66 per day as of March 2025, AMR Operations Manager Andrew Cherry told Multnomah County News. Also, a significant reduction in "Level 0" incidents, representing times with no available ambulances to respond to calls, was seen after the settlement agreement's implementation.
The final assessment of AMR's compliance with the settlement agreement will be made in August 2025, at which point the county will determine whether to continue, modify, or terminate the current arrangement. Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards has expressed a keen interest in evaluating if the fines levied against AMR, totaling $8 million for failure to meet contract compliance, will materialize if compliance rates fail to improve. Meanwhile, the public can now access monthly reports on AMR’s compliance with response times and other contract metrics via the County's Emergency Medical Services webpage, in a new level of transparency afforded by the settlement agreement.
