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Fire Department to Respond to Medical Emergency Calls: City Firefighters Have Quicker Response Time

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Ryan Garrett, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Jan. 11--City firefighters will likely be responding to medical emergency calls by fall. The Owensboro City Commission put its support behind Fire Chief Ronnie Heep on Tuesday to have firefighters respond to all medical calls that involve someone who is unconscious, not breathing or suffering from cardiac arrest.

Firefighters also will respond when callers can't describe their conditions, as part of the plan discussed during a work session at City Hall.

"The main reason for us being there is early response time (and) early defibrillation," Heep said during the 65-minute discussion.

By contract, Yellow Ambulance Service is supposed to respond to 90 percent of calls in the city within seven minutes and 59 seconds. The fire department's average response time is four minutes or less to 90 percent of all calls, Heep said.

Yellow Ambulance averages about 4 1/2 to five minutes, he said.

"Their response times are basically a roller coaster," he said. "Some weeks they're very good. Some weeks they're not at all."

The American Heart Association recommends a response in four minutes or less to cardiac arrest calls.

Yellow responds with two ambulances inside the city. Heep said he will ask that the company maintain that policy.

The change should supplement Yellow Ambulance, not reduce its workload, City Manager Bob Whitmer said.

Heep expects the move to add about 2.4 calls per 24-hour shift for the department, bringing the daily emergency response call average to seven for the five fire stations.

The department won't implement the plan until it gets a second rescue truck, which is already budgeted. That will take about six months after the order is finalized, Heep said.

In the meantime, Heep plans to get more training for his department.

About 80 percent of the department is trained as Emergency Medical Technicians. But some firefighters aren't entirely comfortable putting those skills to use, Heep said.

"I have no doubt that these guys will step up," Heep said. "It's going to be a little rocky at first ... but in two years we'll be clicking right along just like we are with the vehicle accidents with injuries."

Firefighters have responded to injury accidents and stabilized victims until ambulances arrive for several years.

Richmond and Owensboro are the only Class 2 cities in Kentucky with fire departments that don't respond to life-threatening medical calls, Heep said.

Former Chief Fred Hina introduced a plan in May 2004 for firefighters to respond to the calls, but firefighters responded with skepticism, saying that the additional runs could interfere with their primary jobs. The city put the plan on hold two months later, and Hina retired that August.

A recent eight-month evaluation of fire and ambulance runs did not turn up any instances in which a structure fire would have overlapped a life-threatening medical call, Heep said.

"It can occur," he said. "But in my opinion, it's very rare."

Chris Luttrell, president of the local firefighters union, expects members of the department to have many questions about the plan.

First and foremost, members will want to know that fighting fires is still their top priority, he said after the work session. They will also want to know that manpower will not be diminished by the plan and unnecessary calls won't be forwarded their way.

"When a fire doubles every 17 seconds, you're talking about the potential for some property damage or loss of life," he said.

Eventually, however, firefighters could push for a more expanded medical role, possibly asking to integrate the ambulance service into the department, Luttrell said.

"I think we can say that's something that we'd like to see happen," he said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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