Heeding the call on that occasion, small volunteer companies in Newington, Rocky Hill and Wethersfield sent ambulances racing toward the city. Hartford police cruisers met them at the city limits, and guided one to a housing project where a man with chest pains couldn't wait for an AMR ambulance to become available. As part of a string of acquisitions on its way to becoming the largest ambulance company in Connecticut, AMR stormed into Hartford in February 1997. Under state law, the state health department determines who will provide ambulance service to communities, but the communities can negotiate response time requirements and other performance measures with their providers. In Hartford, as in many cities, AMR is not paid directly by the city but makes money by billing the patients it transports.
Insurance usually covers the costs.
Under a contract that expired six years ago but that AMR and the city still consider in effect, ambulances are to respond to all serious emergencies within six minutes, and AMR must keep six vehicles dedicated to 911 calls between 10 a.m. and 2 a.m. every day. By anyone's yardstick, that isn't happening. Within months of AMR moving into Hartford, police dispatchers began finding that, with increasing frequency, ambulances were unavailable for 911 calls. Where ambulances were unavailable 16 times during the first six months of 1997, that number has since surged to an average of 15 to 20 a month. A series of inspection reports prepared last year by police shift-supervisors show that AMR did not have the minimum six ambulances required for 911 calls on half the days inspected.