Response Times!!!

[JohnEMT13rescuesquad8]

What do you think is a fair response time to a call and do you think there should be levels of responses?

 

[TransportJockey]

My service has out the door time for 911 calls of two minutes. I've seen some volunteer services where response time was 5 minutes or more and that's unnacceptable.
Most services that post have requirements of response time within 1 minute

 

[JohnEMT13rescuesquad8]

we have 8 minutes in kent county md

 

[TransportJockey]

we have 8 minutes in kent county md

I might actually be misunderstanding what you're asking. Do you mean time till you actually get en route to call, or time to scene from en route? If time to scene... anywhere from 1 minute to 40 minutes for us here.

 

[JPINFV]

I think this thread has already shown a huge problem with discussing response times. What is a response time? 911 call to patient contact, 911 call to on scene, dispatch to patient contact, dispatch to on scene, en route to patient contact, en route to on scene, or in cases with out a duty crew, dispatch to enroute?

I would argue that the only thing that matters (note: "matters" in terms of usable for research and "matters" in terms of patient outcome are different) in terms of research, someone who is responsible for the system as a whole, and the patient is the 911 call to patient contact time. However, different segments are important for different providers. The dispatch center should only be concerned with 911 call to dispatch since that's what they can control. Similarly, dispatch to patient contact is what's important for the field provider.

However, as mentioned at the begging, the only response time (interval) that truely matters is 911 call to patient contact.

 

[rescue1]

JohnEMT volunteers where I do in MD. The ambulance routinely takes 8 minutes or more to respond (as in leave the station) due to the volunteers distance from the station and a slow decline in membership. Depending on the area, then, it can take between 9 minutes (right in town) to 20-25 minutes (outskirts of the first due) from 911 to pt contact if the bus is forced to wait for dispatch to make a response check (done 8 minutes after dispatch).

 

[Frozennoodle]

I think this thread has already shown a huge problem with discussing response times. What is a response time? 911 call to patient contact, 911 call to on scene, dispatch to patient contact, dispatch to on scene, en route to patient contact, en route to on scene, or in cases with out a duty crew, dispatch to enroute?

I would argue that the only thing that matters (note: "matters" in terms of usable for research and "matters" in terms of patient outcome are different) in terms of research, someone who is responsible for the system as a whole, and the patient is the 911 call to patient contact time. However, different segments are important for different providers. The dispatch center should only be concerned with 911 call to dispatch since that's what they can control. Similarly, dispatch to patient contact is what's important for the field provider.

However, as mentioned at the begging, the only response time (interval) that truely matters is 911 call to patient contact.

I agree, it really depends on what you're trying to measure. 911 to patient contact is a decent way of looking at the efficiency of the system as a whole but other things like call to cad times, cad to dispatch, dispatch to en route, en route to patient contact, gives more information as to where the break down is occurring and an idea on where to look to fix it.

 

[JohnEMT13rescuesquad8]

I agree there are alot of ways to look at this i think the most important thing is cutting time down from the cad time to the dispatch point and some how fixing the time of dispatch till the unit hits the street. The distance to a pt is always changing and out of our of ours hands. Back home where i ride we have 3 minutes and if not out they go next due

 

[EMT11KDL]

we have gone to the Priority Dispatching. So depending on the call, its either a Code 3 response (L/S), or Code 2 response (No L/S). Dispatch tells us which one it is.

 

[Phlipper]

My service has out the door time for 911 calls of two minutes. I've seen some volunteer services where response time was 5 minutes or more and that's unnacceptable.

Try eight minutes on for size. We still have a couple of volleys on nights and weekends who respond from home. Eight minutes. Luckily we always have a QRV rolling asap.

 

[emtpche]

We have units deployed on street corners with the expectation of a 45 second response time from the time we are dispatched the call. Depending on whether there is a ALS or BLS first responder our on scene times vary from 8 to 12 miutes

 

[Pittma]

Our fire dept, if I had to guess, has a "chute" time (call goes out-EMS responding) of probably about 6-8 minutes. Not bad. I wish it was shorter, and would rather see the actual station staffed, but it is what it is. Short funding, small town, but a great department, and standards of care.

 

[MrBrown]

Ours are 8 minutes 50% of the time to life threatning urban emergencies and 95% within 20 minutes

 

[medicdan]

For a small campus-based EMS system, we aim for less than 3 minutes 90% of the time- from EMS dispatch to arrival on scene (and 3:30 from dispatch to patient contact). We achieve this through spreading on-duty members throughout our response area and responding by foot with aid kits.

 

[MrBrown]

For a small campus-based EMS system, we aim for less than 3 minutes 90% of the time- from EMS dispatch to arrival on scene (and 3:30 from dispatch to patient contact). We achieve this through spreading on-duty members throughout our response area and responding by foot with aid kits.

Our Thomas Packs weigh probably twenty kilos (44lbs) bugger running round with one of those!!

 

[jjesusfreak01]

For a small campus-based EMS system, we aim for less than 3 minutes 90% of the time- from EMS dispatch to arrival on scene (and 3:30 from dispatch to patient contact). We achieve this through spreading on-duty members throughout our response area and responding by foot with aid kits.

I recall when I was back at UNC campus EMS (technically not on campus, but the station was a few hundred yards from the edge of campus) was covered by South Orange rescue squad, and I don't recall ever seeing them arrive for anything in less than 10 minutes. One incident I was at saw the campus police arrive in 3 minutes, fire arrive in 7, and ems in probably 15.

 

[lightsandsirens5]

We have 5 minutes, at five minutes dispatch will sometimes attempt to contact us by radio. At 7 minutes they re-page. At 10 minutes another crew is paged.

 

[DarkStarr]

2 minutes from the house to call en route and we generally take 10-12 on a non emergency within the service area and 2-8 emergency. when responding to neighboring communities it may take 12 minutes or so with lights and sirens and thats with ideal road conditions. if we go out to cover the other side of the river for the other service, all bets are off.

 

[EMT11KDL]

in city limits, usually 4-7 mins. our of city limits 8-15 mins depending how far out in the county they are

 

[HotelCo]

At my service, it's 3 minutes from being dispatched to the call, until we have to call en route.