[Scan-DC] COMING SOON: Mont. Co. EMS chase car pilot

[Jeff Krauss]

It has always seemed to me to be a waste of 
resources to send heavy apparatus on ALS calls.


At 11:46 PM 4/10/2014, Alan Henney wrote:
>------------------------------------------- 
>Subject: Paramedic Chase Car - Test Over the 
>past year and a half, the Operations Division 
>and the EMS section has been evaluating our EMS 
>deployment model. One of our main goals is to 
>ensure the on-scene arrival of an ALS provider 
>within 8 minutes of dispatch of an ALS 
>call.   We also have to ensure that we are using 
>resources in an efficient manner. During our 
>study of the ALS component of our EMS system, we 
>found that we still have some gaps in ALS 
>response times and that we are over utilizing 
>ALS transport units for known BLS calls.  The 
>proposed ALS delivery model for the future is 
>that almost all transport units will be BLS, and 
>all Engines will be Paramedic Engines.  The 
>busier stations will also have Paramedic Chase 
>Units (PCU’s) to supplement the Paramedic 
>Engines.  Our PCU’s will be light duty 
>vehicles with one or two paramedics, sets of ALS 
>gear, SCBA, and PPE that will respond with 
>transport units to ALS calls.  The intent is to 
>get a cot and the right number of paramedics and 
>providers to our EMS calls with the minimum 
>number of apparatus. Accordingly, we will be 
>placing ALS703, ALS708, ALS725, and ALS742 in 
>service on or about April 20th to test the 
>Paramedic Chase Unit concept.  The PCU Test will 
>run for about three months and will allow us to 
>collect data to validate and/or fine tune the 
>ALS delivery model for the future.  ALS703 and 
>ALS725 will be staffed with a single ALS 
>provider. ALS708 will have two ALS providers. 
>ALS742 will be staffed with two during the day 
>and at least one at night.  During the test, the 
>existing Medic units at 3, 8, 25, R2 will be 
>restaffed as Ambulances; therefore there will be 
>no change in the numbers of transport units 
>available from those stations.   During the 
>test, we will be evaluating: ALS response times, 
>The decline of heavy apparatus calls, ALS 
>readiness and reliability, The rate of ALS 
>triage and downgrades, and The provider and 
>patient satisfaction.  In the development and 
>planning of this test, we have meet with the two 
>representative organizations, required support 
>sections (ECC/Fleet/etc), and started 
>coordination with the station commanders and 
>LFRD leadership at the test stations. These 
>coordination efforts have lead to valuable input 
>and delayed this organization wide announcement. 
>Plans are in place to provide station/shift 
>level roll-out next week. Additional information 
>will be forthcoming. I ask that you remain as 
>flexible as possible and as supportive as you 
>can be.  I understand how difficult change can 
>be, but as public safety leaders and providers, 
>we need to objectively measure whether this 
>method of delivery is better for the residents 
>we 
>serve. 
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