PLEASANT HILL, Calif. — The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District teamed with American Medical Response for the delivery of EMS services.
The district director said the change will improve response times and help achieve more efficient deployment of personnel.
The Fire Protection District Board of Directors approved the new delivery model last year, and work has been underway to ensure the transition is a smooth. Budget cuts over the years combined with technological improvements made the time right for a shift in how the agencies approached emergency medical response, a press release stated.
“The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District Board of Directors is looking forward to seeing the benefits expected from the partnership,” said District Director Candace Andersen. “With the launch on Jan. 1, we want to make sure residents are aware that although the vehicles and uniforms may look different, when someone responds to your 911 call there won’t be many obvious changes for the patient. One of the shifts we do expect is a more efficient deployment of our personnel. In many cases response times will improve and it won’t be necessary to send both a fire truck and an ambulance to every emergency medical call.”
Supervisor Andersen was speaking on behalf of the board, which is comprised of the five members of the County Board of Supervisors acting in their capacity with the Fire District. Supervisor Andersen is the Chair of the Board for 2016.
The changes in uniforms and the look of the vehicles responding is underway, part of an overall rebranding effort. Moreover, the quick response vehicles are no longer part of the response team. A QRV was a single paramedic vehicle stationed at a fire station that would respond with the fire district’s first responders, assisting until an ambulance would arrive to transport the patient. QRVs cannot transport patients to the hospital. The three QRVs are being replaced instead by ambulances.
The new contract improves the mandated response time of ambulances from 16:45 to 11:45 is most areas — a higher level of service to residents. To accommodate that change, ambulance unit hours have been increased.