Fire and EMS requests more staff to combat response times

March 25--DINWIDDIE -- As the county has grown, so have concerns over emergency response times.

That is why the county's proposed Fire and EMS budget swelled by almost $75,000 this fiscal year to hire more staff. That number could go up even more if an EMS manager is added to handle the additional hires.

The additions would represent the first staff increase in the Fire and EMS department since 2004. Dennis Hale, director of Fire and EMS, characterized the proposal as an effective way of responding to increased call loads and resources that are beginning to be stretched thin.

While the number of EMS staff has remained flat, the calls for service have increased by 1 percent to 1.5 percent since 2009.

Last year, 16 full-time advanced life support providers, 10 part-time EMS providers and more than 75 volunteer EMS providers responded to over 3,000 EMS incidents. EMS units responded to 3,118 total calls for service in 2013. An EMS transport was only needed for about half -- or 1,529 -- of those calls. Seventeen percent, or 554, of the calls were canceled or did not need EMS.

"Every call is an emergency to the caller," Hale said, adding that the number of calls emergency personnel wouldn't consider an emergency is a significant percentage of the total calls.

The additional part-timers are expected to cut response times that Hale said have become troubling.

The overall average response time in the county is 13 minutes and 23 seconds. Hale said three minutes should be added to that time in order to take into account the minutes it takes to receive a call and get emergency personnel on the road.

"That's not terribly bad for a county this size, but its pretty skewed," Hale said.

What has started to concern Hale is the number of times that a caller is waiting more than 15 minutes for an ambulance.

After taking into account those needed three minutes, a little less than half of emergency calls are answered in 15 minutes or less, Hale said. Ten percent of callers are waiting 23 minutes or longer, while 25 percent of callers are waiting at least 18 minutes.

In addition, the times when an ambulance is not available have become more frequent. Since Nov. 1, 2013, 50 calls were dispatched when there was no unit available, which equated to an average of 11 times per month.

"The majority of those were answered by mutual aid," Hale said. "That is really starting to concern me. It's not terrible yet, but we would rather not wait until we have had total failure and ... address this efficiently."

The department is also struggling to cover special events hosted by the Parks and Recreation Department.

"We're not covering a lot of these tournaments that he [Brian Mancini, director of Parks and Recreation] is bringing in," Hale said.

Hale is requesting the additional $75,000 to add staff during the peak call hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. That money will grow the part-time EMS staff from 10 to somewhere between 15 and 20.

"It equates to staffing an ambulance for six months, 12 hours a day," Hale said.

The part-time EMS providers are PRN employees, meaning that they are called as needed. They typically fill in for full-time employees when they are unavailable.

"You are really enhancing a service that you already offer," County Administrator Kevin Massengill told the Board of Supervisors during a March 11 budget work session.

Hale said the part-timers are not only cheaper, but better meet the needs of the county by making more resources available during peak call hours.

"I don't think the need is there for another truck around-the-clock, but we are definitely starting to see the need to cover this ... staffing during peak hours," Hale said. "When we see a need for an ambulance. We want to be able to apply staff to that area without having to provide someone with a 40-hour work week with full-time pay and full-time benefits."

Hale also requested an EMS manager be added to the payroll to handle the additional part-timers. All of the part-timers currently report to Hale for paperwork matters because there is no manager over EMS.

"Obviously, he can't keep all those balls in the air," Massengill said.

Even though other Fire and EMS supervisors help Hale as much as possible, they are also busy doing other duties. Much of one supervisor's time, Hale said, is consumed with scheduling while another supervisor handles vehicle repairs. Most of the time, the supervisors are completing work off-duty.

"We have just expanded to the point where we don't have enough people to get it done. There is just no other way to put it," Hale said.

Supervisors will consider the proposal during several upcoming budget work sessions.

- Vanessa Remmers may be reached at 804-722-5155 or vremmers@progress-index.com.

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