County ambulance provider Rural Metro missed its monthly response times for emergencies in Sunnyvale all but once during a 17-month period ending Novemebr 2012, according to internal documents. This and other system failures have placed the company’s contract in jeopardy.

Rural/Metro took over Santa Clara County’s ambulance contract last July, and by most accounts the company has done a good job. The company submitted a low bid to replace American Medical Response, and county Supervisors George Shirakawa, Mike Wasserman and Dave Cortese championed Rural/Metro as a low-cost yet responsible replacement. Aside from a rough transition in the first month on the job, response times have been above the required threshold in most cases. However, what isn’t found in the monthly reports that Rural/Metro is required to submit to the county is the number of patient records the company lost in its first two months on the job.