A couple of months ago the Rural/Metro Corporation filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.  Last month I sent them a detailed letter asking for a host of financial and operational information about the company in order to determine whether the company still meets our statutory mandate (ARS 36-2201) and rules requirement (AAC R9-25-912(A)) that they be “Fit and Proper” to run an ambulance service in Arizona…  which means that they must have the expertise, integrity, fiscal competence and resources to provide ambulance service.  Rural Metro provides a big chunk of EMS transports in AZ- so this is important.

We received the required information last month and our team has been reviewing the information in detail.  We’re also carefully monitoring Rural Metro’s performance (like response times) to ensure that they are living up to their commitments to provide high quality ambulance services in the State.  So far, so good.  It’ll be several more months until we will have a full picture of the company’s (post-bankruptcy) health- but we’re carefully watching their performance and…. stand ready to ensure that Arizona’s EMS system continues to operate at the high levels of service and quality we’ve all come to expect.