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Director reports improved response-time metrics, describes staffing and operational changes
Summary
The ambulance director reported that the committee’s average page-to-scene response time improved relative to 2023 and outlined schedule changes, a 90-second page-to-out directive, increased full-time coverage and other operational steps to maintain performance amid high call volumes.
Brent, the department director, reported performance metrics and operational changes during the committee’s monthly director’s report.
“The national standard for metropolitan EMS is 8 minutes,” Brent said. “For 2023 we were at 9.26 minutes. For 2024 … we’re at 7.5. So we’ve reached that target.” He credited scheduling changes and new station routines for the improvement.
Brent described three main changes aimed at reducing response delay: a directive setting a 90-second goal for “page to out” (the time from the page to units leaving the station) with a 10% buffer, revision of full-time scheduling to keep two full-time staff on shift most days instead of supplementing a single full-time worker with part-time personnel, and a policy discouraging staff from leaving station vehicles for errands during shifts so crews can depart promptly.
The director also reviewed monthly and daily call-volume charts. He said January had reached 112 calls so far and noted that July 2024 was the busiest month. He told the committee that response volumes have required multiple recalls of off-duty staff but that the service did not miss any calls during a recent five-day period: “We have answered every single one of those calls.”
Brent said the hospital’s CT scanner outages contributed to long-distance transfers during a recent weekend and that transfer workload is tracked in a separate transfer-data report.
Committee members asked for copies of the call-count and paging reports; the director said those documents were in the meeting packet and that staff would redistribute legible copies to members.
No formal committee action was taken on operational directives; members discussed staffing and asked for additional data for future meetings.
