Santa Clara County Gets New Ambulance Service

SANTA CLARA (KCBS)— A new company is providing ambulance service in Santa Clara County starting on Friday. It's the biggest change in 30 years as 55 bright blue and gold ambulances provided by Rural/ Metro Corporation will replace the American Medical Response units.

The new service will have about a quarter more rigs on the streets than AMR and, according to division manager Travis Kunsman, that should expedite response times.

KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:

"With more ambulances on the street, the coverage is substantially better than it has been in the past," said Kunsman.

Kunsman added that while the company is new, the workers aren't.

"All of the EMTs and paramedics that will be working on our ambulances here during our start-up period and thereafter were actually obtained from the current provider," said Kunsman.

The new ambulances are equipped with advanced technology which allows paramedics to transmit real-time medical information before the patient arrives at the hospital.

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