In an effort to improve late 911 response times, Clark County implemented a “corrective action plan” for two of the private ambulance companies it contracts with currently.

The plan, approved Tuesday by the Board of Commissioners, allows the county to fast track changes to its contracts with MedicWest and AMR, which expire in 2026.

“I think we’re to the point now that if we’re going to react, we’re going to have to react in the moment,” Commission Chair Jim Gibson said.

To be compliant, ambulances have to respond to 911 calls in under 12 minutes 90 percent of the time each month.

For more than a year, MedicWest and AMR — both owned by Colorado-based Global Medical Response — have consistently failed to meet the monthly benchmark, prompting Clark County to redistrict away some of their coverage areas to a competitor, Community Ambulance.

“These changes to the Service Areas have not resulted in increased compliance (by MedicWest and AMR), therefore, the County must take additional corrective actions to ensure adequate Ambulance Services for Clark County,” county documents state.

Community Ambulance, meanwhile, has continued to be compliant at a 96 percent rate, on average, despite increasing its coverage area from 15 percent of all county calls to 52 percent, including the Strip corridor, since early 2022.

Under the new plan, the Clark County Fire Department, which oversees the contracts, can further redraw the coverage maps with a 30-day notice.

AMR and MedicWest now will have to provide the department weekly staffing plans.

If they’re considered understaffed, the fire department can assign “mutual aid assistance,” although those calls “will not count toward response time compliance, ” the plan states.

The new plan also clarifies the on-scene policy that determines when an ambulance is considered to have arrived to a call, Deputy Fire Chief Jennifer Wyatt said.

For example, when an ambulance responds to an intersection without a specific address given, it is considered there when it enters that intersection, according to the plan. If one is dispatched to the airport, it’s considered there when it reaches the security gate.

AMR and MedicWest now will also have the ability to quicker release ambulances from scenes that have a police hold, Wyatt said.

The plan came together as a collaborative effort between the county and the three ambulance companies, Wyatt told commissioners.

Michael Johnson, regional director for AMR and MedicWest, said the companies welcomed the partnership.

“We’re happy with the opportunity to be able to have some input, that’s something that is a welcome new piece to this process,” he told the Review-Journal.

Johnson has contended that a national shortage of paramedics worsened during the pandemic, straining their operations.

Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick touched up on that point.

“This really is, for a lack of better words, a workforce issue,” she said. “We need more paramedics, yesterday, if not last year.

“As Clark County as a whole,” she added, “we are going to have to step up to solve it for all entities.”

But before voting for the plan, Commissioner Michael Naft said that “this is not the case where everybody is failing,” noting Community Ambulance’s constant compliance. “This is not like a choice of lesser of three evils here.”

Wyatt told the Review-Journal that she’s hopeful the new plan will ease the crisis.

“Our whole goal is to continue to have a franchise agreement with them,” she said.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at [email protected]. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.