Troy’s EMS contract requires 90% of Priority 1 emergency responses to have an eligible unit on scene within 6 minutes. It is not an average-response-time requirement.
Under the current tiered-response model:
- The clock begins when the call is dispatched, not when the original 911 call is answered.
- The first qualified PFR, BLS ambulance, or ALS ambulance to arrive stops the clock.
- The standard is 6:00 or less for 90% of emergency incidents.
- Priority 3/non-emergency calls have a separate 15-minute, 90% requirement.
That means the present benchmark does not necessarily require an ambulance to arrive within six minutes. A non-transporting paramedic first-response vehicle can stop the clock, with an ambulance arriving afterward.
What happens under the dedicated-ambulance model?
You are correct: simply moving from the trial tiered model to the 5-day/4-night dedicated-ambulance model would not eliminate the six-minute requirement.
The contract says that, if the trial is unsatisfactory, STAR must transition to the deployment plan “per bid specifications”: five dedicated ALS ambulances during the day and four overnight. Those units must be exclusively assigned to Troy and normally cannot be pulled into other jurisdictions.
The referenced bid specifications expressly require the dedicated model to provide:
A paramedic ALS unit on scene within 6:00 from receipt of the call at the provider’s dispatch, for 90% of Priority 1 incidents.
The dedicated-model pricing form is even more explicit. It says Proposal A provides five daytime and four nighttime dedicated ALS ambulances at a minimum response-time standard of six minutes for 90% of emergency responses, and that the subsidy pays STAR both to dedicate those vehicles and maintain that response-time service level.
STAR’s completed proposal repeats the same obligation next to its $64,262-per-month dedicated-model price.
Finally, the City’s purchase/service contract separately states:
- “ALS ambulance response time” must be six minutes for 90% of emergency responses;
- Proposal A is the 5/4 dedicated-ALS model;
- Proposals B-1 and B-2 also carry the six-minute requirement.
What is wrong with Bob Bruner’s statement?
This part is contradicted by the written contract:
“They stop being responsible for response time. They are only responsible for putting those units on the road.”
That is not what the contract package says. Under the dedicated model, STAR would be responsible for both:
- Providing five dedicated ALS ambulances by day and four by night; and
- Maintaining the six-minute/90% emergency-response standard.
There is some sloppy drafting because Section 2.14 of the final agreement is titled “Response Times (Tiered Response Model).” But the transition provision explicitly sends the parties back to the bid specifications, and those specifications expressly impose the six-minute requirement on the dedicated model. The purchase order also imposes the ALS ambulance response requirement before listing all three pricing models.
Interestingly, STAR originally argued in its proposal that Troy should choose either fixed units or performance accountability, but not both, because response times could vary under a fixed deployment. That was STAR’s requested position, not the obligation ultimately stated in the executed contract and pricing documents.
The fair conclusion
Bruner could reasonably argue that Troy might pay more and still experience slower results in practice if the dedicated deployment performs poorly. But he was wrong to say STAR would no longer be contractually responsible for response time.
A more accurate statement would have been:
“Under the dedicated model, Troy would pay more for five daytime and four nighttime ALS ambulances. STAR would still be required to meet the six-minute standard for 90% of emergency calls, but the city would also be prescribing the minimum deployment used to achieve it.”
To actually remove the six-minute requirement, the parties would need to formally amend the agreement in writing; it does not disappear merely because the City exercises the existing dedicated-deployment option.