By Ben Weathers
The Capital
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Adding ambulances and changing call and dispatch procedures have helped reduce average paramedic response times by 27 percent, according to the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.
Fire officials mainly attribute the reduction to the placing of using additional ambulances and better utilization of resources. During the past nine months, the fire department has placed five additional five basic life support ambulances in the field.
About 80 percent of the department’s calls are medical. Approximately 65 percent of all medical calls are for non-life threatening injuries or medical conditions.
Using more ambulances capable of providing “basic life support,” has improved the availability of ambulances and fire engines capable of providing advanced care, fire officials said.
The National Fire Protection Association recommends an eight-minute response time for 90 percent of all paramedic calls.
In 2010, the department had a 90th percentile paramedic response time of just over 12 minutes and 30 seconds. During the first three quarters of 2014, that time has dropped more than two minutes to just under 10, fire officials said.
While the department’s 90th percentile response remains above the national standard, its average response time is well below the eight-minute mark.
The average paramedic response time in the first quarter of 2010 was 7 minutes and 45 seconds. During the first three quarters of 2014, that time decreased more than two minutes to just over 5 minutes and 40 seconds, fire officials said.
The department has also shaved an additional minute from the overall response time by asking fewer questions of callers before they go to the scene.
“Three minutes – that’s a significant reduction in time,” Davies said. “Depending on the nature of the emergency that can make a big difference.”
Davies noted that in cardiac arrest cases every minute a patient goes without cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), it is said to reduce the chances of survival by 10 percent.
The fire department responds to an average of about 200 calls a day – or 70,000 calls a year.
But the call processing center in Millersville probably takes as many as 300,000 calls each year, Davies said. The fire department spokesman said call takers will often receive multiple calls for the same incidents.
More help coming
The department plans to place another five ambulances in the field in the next two months.
Two of the ambulances will be in Deale and Odenton this week, fire department spokesman Lt. Russ Davies week.
The department delayed the scheduled $1.2 million purchase of a ladder truck from fiscal 2014 year to purchase the ambulances. The fire truck will be bought this fiscal year, Davies said.
County Fire Chief Michael Cox said once the ambulances are in place the department would meet the National Fire Service Protection Association’s guidelines for the advanced life support ambulances for the first time in the department’s 50-year history.
While response times for paramedic units is down, the average response time for basic life support ambulances has increased about a minute. Davies said that the increase is palatable since those ambulances handle lower priority calls.
In many cases, a paramedic is already on scene before a basic life support ambulance arrives, according to Davies, who said the department expects the response time to even out as the additional ambulances are in use.
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©2014 The Capital (Annapolis, Md.)