AMR in compliance, but rising low‑acuity 911 calls strain Shawnee County EMS

Shawnee County commissioners were told May 8 that American Medical Response (AMR) met the county's ambulance‑service contract requirements for fiscal year 2024, but officials cautioned that a surge in low‑acuity 911 calls, limited paramedic supply and hospital turnaround delays are straining the local EMS system.

Nelson Castillo, Shawnee County ambulance compliance officer, told the Board of County Commissioners at a work session that “AMR is in full compliance with the contract.” Castillo said AMR has been out of compliance only four months since 2017 and that 2024 performance generally improved after adjustments made during and after the COVID‑19 period.

The county's ambulance contract uses an 80 percent on‑time response threshold as its primary performance metric. Castillo said the county and AMR removed scheduled inner‑facility transfers (IFTs) from the contract's compliance calculations after contract negotiations; excluding those IFTs changed year‑to‑year comparisons and increased apparent call volumes. He described IFTs as scheduled moves such as a nursing‑home patient sent to an emergency department for nonemergency lab results and said the county sees roughly 250–300 such IFTs a month.

Why it matters

County officials said the increase in nonurgent calls reduces available resources for high‑acuity emergencies and contributes to fines assessed under the compliance regime. John Hanks,…