Responding Area vs. Responding Time

paramedix

paramedix

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How big is your area you respond to calls in and what is the average time for you to get there (peak hour / non peak)?

My area which I cover on my vehicle (public safety) is approx 100+ km radius and would take me between 10 -15 minutes non peak and sometimes 25 minutes peak. This includes some of the fly cars.

Ambulances are grouped in areas, but the can cover up to 50 km radius at a time and average between 15 - 20 minute response.

However, keep in mind that some ambulance companies can take more than an hour to turn out to the call. It also largely depends on what number you phone. If you phone the police, no ambulance....or fire....
 
Since my paid service is non-emergent IFT's, I'll leave them out of this one.

My vollie service covers 240 sq. miles, and has automatic aid for another 35 sq. miles or so, plus a couple of mountains and some federal property. Our average response time is running in the area of 12:45 from call to on scene, but the state allows us 45 minutes.
 
We cover 132 square miles of the City of Atlanta providing ALS 911 service Depending on System Level, one unit can be responsible for all 132 square miles (level 1) or less than 8 square miles (level 16). Our response time is largely dependent on system levels, however, per our 2007 impact study:

"In 2007, Grady EMS's average response time to "Life Threatening/Code 1" calls was 6:19 (min/seconds). Average to "Presumed Life Threatening/Code 2) calls was 6:24 (min/seconds). "Non-Life Threatening/Code 3" calls was 8:35 (min/seconds). Total responses of over 100,000 in 2007, with over 97,000 patient contacts, total number of Code 1 and 2 calls (with pt contact) was 45,404 total. 17,880 calls resulted in emergent transport to a local emergency room with an average transport of 7:52 (minutes/seconds)"

At level 1, an emergent response from post (AFD #4) to the furthest point in the city can be nearly 17 minutes at 3 am to 25+ during rush hours (both personal experiences).
 
Our vollie squad covers a 52sq mile area. Average time for a rig to arrive is 11 minutes, but due to our response from home, generally there is a volunteer on scene within 5 minutes. We also provide aid to the National Park Service and a large area of Natural Resources Land. Those calls can be a 20 minute response due to the pitted dirt logging roads we have to travel to get there. We have had to park a rig and then pack in to a pt on foot for a mile.
 
The paid dept I was affiliated with a while ago was 54sq miles. The had 5 stations so their response time was within minutes.

The volly. dept I'm on now only covers a few square miles, but often goes mutual aid out of district. From when the tones hit, it usually takes 2-3 minutes for us to "answer up," and another 30sec-1min waiting for a full crew to roll. It also depends on the call. If we get a working house fire, EVERYONE and their mother shows up. If its a pt. on a ground level fall, I might be the only one to show up, then we have to call mutual aid (and they often don't like sending an ambulance to us...)
 
http://www.queensbury.net/GIS/EMS_districts.pdf my EMS district is the pale orangeish color, we also mutual aid to other places on the map also, (in white) such as Moreau, Luzurne, Lake George and Glens Falls (the last two are rare) we also mutual aid often the two other colored ones on the map. The max time it would take us to get to our furthest mutual aid area is about 30 minutes during peak times.
 
Despite the small size of my district, I often feel bad for patients because we cannot staff our ILS ambulance- usually during the day whilst people are working. Cause even if enough basics show up (volly dept), we can't roll until we get an Intermediate or Paramedic. Though we will often roll another truck that has all the ILS equipment but of course the basics would only use what's in our protocols. We can't tx until our I or P shows up. Though...if the pt is critical and time doesn't permit, we'll roll. I guess it's a protocol vs. ethics vs. morals.
 
Ironically at this time I am writing a proposal on changes for my department. We cover about 1250 square miles with four EMS units. I have just instuted the emphasis of making note of differences from number of responses and total time.

We work 24 hour shifts, and when one describes that they respond to 6 calls in 24 hours; it does not sound remarkable. After implementing statistics of total time of the call, it is not unusual to have an average 8 minute response time, but we also cover rural areas as well. It is usual to have a 20-30 minute response time. This off sets the urban times. It is not unusual to have a 110 minute total call time, and as well we transport SCT to local metro areas. This as well increases our time up to an average of greater than 2 hours.

By doing this the board has awoken that just six calls per unit is much more in length that previously presumed. That unit maybe busy for 14 hours put of the 24 hour shift, with a lot of the responses being at nighttime.

I believe most upper adminstration (Boards, County, etc) lacks the understanding of how most EMS systems really operates.

R/r 911
 
Ridryder911 said:
I believe most upper adminstration (Boards, County, etc) lacks the understanding of how most EMS systems really operates.

R/r 911
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. Often enough, we're just 'ambulance drivers.'
 
We cover BLS for Jersey City and Secaucus, NJ. Total land area is about 21 sq.mi. The population is about 250,000 at night and close to 500k in the daytime. We also cover major road and rail corridors. We use a system status management program that posts our units where the computer thinks the next call is going to be. It's occasionally right. We have a mandated average response time of 8min. I believe the last I heard we're averaging 6 and change. If it's busy you occasionally wind covering the whole city by yourself for a while and that can result in long response runs.

Our ALS covers the whole county which is about 47 sq.mi.
 
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