'That’s Success To Us:' Edmond Fire Sees Response Times Improve With New Ambulance Agreement

Seconds matter when lives are on the line. Edmond city leaders wanted to improve EMS response times so the city signed a new agreement with a new ambulance service at the start of the year. 

Edmond Fire Department officials said they have been looking at response times data and the agreement with American Medical Response has been an improvement.  

After a 911 call jump starts a response, precious seconds already passed. Edmond Deputy Fire Chief Chris Denton said emergency medical services must arrive at an emergency on time.  

“How can we make this better for our citizens of Edmond? That was the whole goal,” Denton said. "[Emergency responders] have to be there within nine minutes and 59 seconds.” 

Denton said crews must arrive in less than 10 minutes for a level one response and less than 20 minutes for a level two emergency. EMS crews must hit that metric 90% of the time. 

“That’s the standard,” Denton said. 

EMSA, which worked with Edmond for two decades, failed to meet the 90% compliance mark for several years.  

“Shortly after covid, everybody struggled,” Denton said. 

Denton told News 9 in December of 2023 his firefighters would wait hours for ambulances to show up. In January, the city parted ways with EMSA and signed a contract with American Medical Response.  

“We have a great relationship with [EMSA],” Denton said. “We just needed a little bit more than what we were getting.”  

Denton said AMR responded to about 3,500 calls in Edmond since January 23. Denton said the April response time numbers show promise. AMR was 90% compliant in April. In May, Denton said its compliance number climbed to 92%. 

“We were ecstatic,” he said. 

Many of Denton's staff work for AMR on their days off.  

“It’s a great working relationship,” he said. “They’re familiar with the town. They know the people of the town.” 

Denton said he listens to his radio and often hears his team and AMR arriving together and on time. 

“That’s music to our ears,” Denton said. “That’s success to us.” 

The agreement with AMR will last until the end of 2024 with the option to resign. Denton said they have come across some billing issues with AMR. He said they are actively solving those problems.