The Sawyer County emergency services speaker reported a significant year-over-year increase in ambulance call volume and described operational changes to reduce response times.

"Well, so as you can see, we're significantly up on our call volume right now, 886 versus 772 from last year," the speaker said, characterizing the increase as 14.8 percent. He said run times have decreased since introducing an additional crew model, which he described as the "third crew, but the second crew out of Hayward. So that's significantly better."

The speaker said he is pursuing mutual-aid agreements similar to the arrangement with Barnes Ambulance, and is reaching out to Park Falls and other neighboring services to discuss cross-border support. He also presented a breakdown of call types, distinguishing medical transports, inter-facility transfers and falls, and said falls are the most common dispatch reason and likely to rise as the county ages.

The speaker cautioned that some calls reported as "dispatch complaint" correspond to caller complaints or call-for-service categories in CAD data, and he explained that certain transports to other hospitals reflect transfer distances and timing.

Committee members posed clarifying questions about terminology; the speaker said he will continue analyzing trends and return with additional data at future meetings.