Emergency Services

A town hall meeting at the University of Oregon emphasized the importance of the CAHOOTS mobile crisis intervention service, which recently lost its funding in Eugene.

Multnomah County has reached an agreement with its ambulance provider, settling months of disagreement over how to improve emergency response times.

Staffing changes won’t immediately be coming to Multnomah County’s beleaguered ambulance system. But a solution appears to be on the horizon.

For around a year, Multnomah County and its ambulance provider, AMR, have wrangled over how to provide faster ambulance response times while not sacrificing the quality of care. This week, the two sides held a second round of talks to find a resolution for the sometimes tense debate.

Chair Vega-Pederson said the county will immediately reopen the ambulance service contract to assess ambulance staffing and response time.

AMR has appealed the fine and argues the delayed response times are largely because of the county’s staffing requirement of two paramedics per ambulance. In neighboring Washington, Clackamas and Clark counties, AMR is able to staff ambulances with one paramedic and an EMT.

Multnomah County officials announced Tuesday the county will impose a $513,650 fine on American Medical Response, the sole company that provides ambulance services to county residents.

Emergency medical service providers throughout Oregon are sounding the alarm about workforce shortages in their field.

The agency has been around since the early 1980s but was housed under other agencies including the State Police and the Military Department. Lawmakers approved the change with broad bipartisan support during the 2021 legislative session.

An OPB investigation shows in the month after Portland's Bureau of Emergency Communications launched new software, 911 hold times surged. Dispatchers repeatedly told leadership at BOEC that the software was a bad idea and, after it was implemented, they have repeatedly warned their work is being hampered.