Long Response Times Prompt Changes for Wisconsin City`s EMS

May 20—EVANSVILLE—A change in who is paged for Evansville ambulance calls is cutting response times that were as long as 25 minutes for the backup ambulance last fall, officials said.

Evansville EMS always has two EMTs on call, ready to respond with its first ambulance, EMS Coordinator Mary Beaver said.

Staffing the second ambulance is where problems arose.

Internal communications issues were delaying responses for the second ambulance, used only when the first crew is on another call, Beaver said. That ambulance does not have an on-call crew and relies on volunteers.

Starting in February, dispatchers at the Rock County Communications Center began immediately paging mutual aid for calls needing the second ambulance instead of waiting to see if Evansville could gather a volunteer crew, Beaver said. If Evansville has a crew available, the mutual aid is canceled, she said.

Evansville has mutual aid agreements with Footville, Edgerton and Brooklyn and paramedic intercepts from Janesville.

The second ambulance is only needed for five to six calls a month, Beaver said, "and that would be a lot."

The Gazette analyzed 911 center data for Evansville ambulance calls since Jan. 1, 2014. The city's second ambulance was dispatched to 125 calls through May 17, 2015. For 50 of those calls, arrival times were not gathered or the calls were canceled.

The average time from dispatch to arrival for the remaining 75 calls was 11.7 minutes. The monthly average response time spiked to nearly 18 minutes last September and 18.8 minutes in January. The monthly average response times started decreasing in February to 10 minutes, and last month it averaged 9 minutes.

The data does not include response times for mutual aid.

The average response time for the 564 calls by the first ambulance was 10 minutes.

The department also started using a phone and computer program that allows EMTs to show whether they are available and allows them to hit a "responding" button if they are headed to a call. A computer in the EMS garage shows who is responding.

Before, EMTs didn't know who was coming, prompting phone calls.

"This is working a whole lot better," Beaver said.

SMALL-TOWN CHALLENGES

While Beaver attributed the department's long response times to communication issues, she said having more volunteers would help.

"Nobody ever has enough EMTs," she said.

"It's just the nature, now. People don't work in the towns that they live in. A lot of employers will not allow their people to leave because they're tight budget money, also. It's tough. It's tight," she said. "The group has to be very dedicated."

Evansville has eight EMTs and four drivers. The department's response area covers more than 8,000 residents within a boundary that extends north to the Dane County line, east about halfway to Edgerton, south to near County A and west to the Green County line.

Responders are paid $2.50 an hour to be on call, which means they have to be in the Evansville area and able to get to the department as soon as possible, Beaver said. Responders are paid $27.50 for each call they go on.

"We have a dedicated schedule for the first ambulance, so that ambulance we know will always get out the door," Beaver said.

Volunteers must complete an EMT course from a technical college, complete a national registry exam, obtain a state license--which requires renewal and a 30-hour refresher course every two years--do CPR training annually and take skills testing every six months.

"It's a lot, and that's part of the problem. There's so much that they ask of the volunteers," she said.

Adding full-time EMTs has been talked about, but "it's futuristic," she said.

The department had averaged 300 calls a year until about five years ago, when it started taking off. Last year, the EMS had 540 calls. Beaver attributes the increase to more medical calls and people using the ambulance more.

Merging with the fire department has not been discussed recently, she said.

"Is it something that may happen in the future? It might. Who really knows?" she said. "They'd have to take the EMT class."

City Administrator Ian Rigg said merging hasn't officially been discussed, but he thinks it's on a lot of people's minds.

"I don't think it's pressing at the moment, but I think it's going to be something we'll eventually have to have a big-picture discussion," he said.

None of Evansville's EMTs are also firefighters, but one firefighter is an ambulance driver, Beaver said.

Copyright 2015 - The Janesville Gazette, Wis.