MultCo commissioners' views diverge over scathing EMS audit

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Multnomah County didn't follow their contract with American Medical Response, missed opportunities to hold AMR accountable and failed to appoint an EMS advisory council. Those are some of the findings of a new audit by county Ombudsman Cheryl Taylor.

Emergency medical services are some of the basic duties of county government. This new audit shows the county has been disregarding basic laws and failed to respond appropriately to slow ambulance times.

Multnomah County commissioners had split reactions to the audit.

"The audit brought up some essential truths," Commissioner Sharon Meieran told KOIN 6 News. "And, the fact we don't have these basic checks or balances in place is extremely concerning."

"It is inexcusable that the County Code has been ignored and that the Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council has not been formed," Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards said in a statement. "When response times are negatively impacting the health and lives of county residents, an Advisory Council with community representatives would shed additional light on service deficiencies and provide much needed community accountability and oversight."

Both commissioners stressed that with lives hanging in the balance the county should not wait to take decisive action.

"I just want to emphasize that I care, I get it, I am here pushing every day to get the services that people need and that they rely on when they have a medical emergency," Meieran said.

She plans to submit a proposal to put the EMS audit on the agenda for public discussion. It's up to Chair Jessica Vega Pederson -- who challenged the audit's findings -- whether to put it on the agenda.

Many of these issues fall on EMS Medical Director Dr. Jon Jui, the Multnomah County Health Department and Vega Pederson. Last Friday, Vega Pederson and the Health Department issued a 2-page response to the audit.

Read Vega Pederson’s letter

On Monday, KOIN 6 News received a statement from Commissioner Lori Stegmann, who said, in part:

“AMR has not met their contractual obligation for quite some time. This has negatively impacted our ability to provide emergency care to residents of Multnomah County and while this is unacceptable, we have chosen a non punitive approach to exhaust every option to work with AMR and help them fix this problem.

I look forward to the reassessment of our Ambulance Service Plan to determine advisory structures that would be appropriate and not duplicative. "

While it's true the county opted to try a pilot program to help AMR, they also fined AMR $513,000 this past fall and they've threatened finds again this year.

AMR and Multnomah County are still in formal mediation.