By Jennifer Johnson
Pioneer Press Newspapers
PARK RIDGE, Ill. — As ambulance calls continue to break yearly records, Park Ridge Fire Chief Jeff Sorensen is looking to add more paramedics to his department.
Sorensen said he plans to ask the City Council to approve the hiring of an additional three paramedics as part of the 2017-18 municipal budget. The cost of the additional personnel in salaries for the first year is estimated at $195,600, Sorensen said, not including benefits and pension contributions.
City Council budget discussions are expected to March 8, according to the city’s calendar. The new budget year starts May 1.
“Even though we’ve taken efforts to decrease call volume in some areas, we’ve still seen an increase in total calls,” Sorensen said, explaining that there were approximately 1,000 more calls in 2016 than there were in 2000. “We’re looking to staff an additional response apparatus in order to assist with those calls.”
According to the fire department’s latest annual report, which was released last week, crews responded to a total 4,868 calls in 2016 — a new record for the department. In 2015, there were just 10 fewer calls for service.
In 2006, the fire department responded to 4,199 calls, department data indicates. That reflects a 13.7 percent increase in responses in 10 years.
Shorter hospital stays, an aging population, residents living with long-term and complex medical conditions, the opening of a new immediate care center five years ago and an increase in the city’s population as a result of new, multi-family developments have all been cited by Sorensen as reasons for the growing number of paramedic calls.
“This is not unique to Park Ridge,” he told the City Council on Feb. 13. “It’s a regional situation.”
The fire department also responds to mutual aid calls in Des Plaines, unincorporated Maine Township and Niles, which has contributed to the increase in call volume as well, Sorensen said. But, at the same time, Park Ridge also receives assistance from these communities, which the fire chief described as about “even” to the number of calls Park Ridge taken on.
A 110-bed assisted living facility, proposed for the southwest corner of Greenwood Avenue and Northwest Highway, is expected to generate new calls for assistance as well, Sorensen indicated. Department leaders have been working with representatives of the proposed facility to determine how many paramedic calls per resident may be required annually, he said.
Paramedic calls accounted for 65.9 percent of all responses in 2016 and, of this number, 62 percent required advanced life support, according to the annual report.
“We are required to do more and more in the field than we were required to do in the past as paramedics,” Sorensen explained.
On most advanced life support cases, four to five paramedics will respond, but up to seven can be needed on the most severe of cases, he said.
Last year, the fire department worked with Advocate Lutheran General Hospital to help reduce the number of ambulance responses by identifying certain on-campus incidents that can be handled internally by medical staff, Sorensen said.
“It’s been a work in progress, but it’s actually paid off from what we can see statistically,” he said. “At one point, we would have seen 30 or more calls to their campus a month, and now I’d say we reduced that by half.”
The department added two new ambulances in 2016 and is scheduled to receive a third and final new ambulance this year, Sorensen said. A grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, received last year, will pay for a new 2017 fire engine, which is anticipated to arrive by September, Sorensen said.
If the City Council approves the hiring of three additional paramedics, they likely would not begin their shift work until 2018, due to the hiring and training process, the fire chief said.
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