SAN DIEGO — The City of San Diego has officially brought on a second ambulance provider to help prevent long response times and make sure San Diegans get emergency help when they need it most.
CBS 8 has been reporting on Falck and its struggles with staffing and long response times for over a year. Monday afternoon, the city council approved changes that should make a huge difference.
"We need to make sure an ambulance is on time every single time to save someone's life and that's what we're doing here today," said Councilmember Marni von Wilpert.
For more than a year, San Diego has raised concerns about Falck's response time delays and ongoing staffing shortage. Last December, The company announced large signing bonuses to help bring on new paramedics.
Falck's Chief Financial Officer, Troy Hagen, said they finally have reached a full level of staffing during Monday's city council meeting.
"These accomplishments happened during the worst nationwide paramedic shortage the U.S. has faced. Other cities are struggling with staffing levels in the 60 or 70% range but San Diego has a fully staffed EMS system," he said.
The city wants to make sure ambulances make it to community members in a timely manner. To guarantee all advanced life support or ALS hours are met, the city voted to bring on AMR as a second ambulance provider.
"We're committed to providing the highest level of emergency medical services to keep a community safe," said Claudia Rempel, with AMR.
The council approved having the city collect ambulance transport charges from patients, along with a 7% fee increase in fiscal year 2025. The city also looks to shift the control of ambulance emergency response efforts to the fire department.
"No longer will we have to simply depend on a private ambulance company to tell us how they will run the ambulance. The city will be, the fire department will be in control of everything from staffing to dispatch," said Marni von Wilpert.
The city is hopeful these changes will get an emergency response back on track for the long term.
WATCH RELATED: City looking to change Falck contract, bringing on second ambulance provider (March 2023).