By Dean Narciso
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The pace of contractions told the Jackson Township woman that her baby would arrive sooner than expected.
An ambulance was called to take her to Mount Carmel West hospital, but all three regular medic crews were on other emergencies at the time. That’s when a fourth ambulance — previously a backup — sprang into action and got the woman to the delivery room with time to spare.
Until recently, she might have delivered in the ambulance.
About every other day, similar dramatic moments have played out in the township, involving people with heart attacks and broken bones and calls for help from the elderly; the township was one medic crew short of delivering medical service to its residents.
So Jackson Township Fire Chief Gilbert Sheets pored over statistics, analyzed his staffing and devised a way to free up the idle ambulance and a crew to staff it.
Jackson Township, in southern Franklin County, is second only to Columbus as central Ohio’s busiest fire and emergency-services department.
When it has been unable to make emergency runs, crews from other townships or the city of Columbus pitched in.
But if they were busy, valuable time was lost.
Sheets calculated that his own department could, and should, do better.
Fire department crews typically staff fire engines, ladder trucks and ambulances, each with a three-member crew trained for their vehicle. While each vehicle has at least one paramedic, and drugs and equipment to save lives, only ambulances transport patients to the hospital.
Sheets calculated that his ladder company was out of service 30 percent of the time. He also had an unstaffed ambulance available, but it was used only when another truck broke down.
So he devised a way for the ladder crew to also staff the ambulance, depending on demand for each.
Since early this summer, the dual-vehicle crew has been in service 97 percent of the time, sharing duty with the medical vehicle from the same station.
The cost to put in service a new ambulance with three emergency medical technicians would have been $300,000 a year, Sheets said.
Under the new system, it will cost less than a third of that.
And Lt. Mark Lewis, a 31-year veteran, likes the cross-staffing.
“We’re not calling in mutual aid; we get to do it ourselves,” he said. “The busier I am, the happier I am.”
The pregnant woman arrived at the hospital at least 7 minutes earlier than she would have under the old system, Sheets estimated. In the same week, a heart-attack victim also was delivered faster, he added.
Even though other communities, including Worthington, have been cross-staffing for years, David Burris, chairman of the township trustees, called Sheets’ decision “brilliant,” and evidence of departmental efficiency.
Jackson Township, with a $10 million annual budget, also serves Grove City and Urbancrest. The most recent levy request for fire and EMS services in the township was in 1992.
“We have always strived to do more with less, now more than ever,” Burris said.
“But the main thing was getting our people to the hospital without waiting for an outside medic,” he said.
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