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SFFD EMS reports stable call volume, rollout of street crisis teams and buprenorphine on ambulances
Summary
Assistant Deputy Chief Sandra Tong told commissioners EMS averaged about 356 calls per day in March, described consolidation of street wellness and crisis teams into a street crisis response team, highlighted community volunteer missions and said paramedics will begin carrying buprenorphine for opioid response.
Assistant Deputy Chief Sandra Tong gave the commission an update on EMS and community paramedicine activities for March. Tong said the department averaged about 356 calls per day and held a paramedic in-service training that completed March 31. Market share for the departmentambulance response was roughly 75%.
Tong described a successful reconfiguration of existing street teams into unified Street Crisis Response Teams that pair a community paramedic, an EMT and a peer-support worker; the change is intended to improve engagement, follow-up and service connections without degrading 911 response capacity. Early results showed increased engagements and more placements under California Welfare & Institutions Code 5150 (the department recorded 39 P5150 detentions this month, up from 28 previously).
Tong also highlighted community efforts by staff: a volunteer medical mission led by Carlos Martinezthat treated thousands of patients abroad and a San Francisco Lifeline project that places a two-sided patient-information card in residents' homes to aid first responders.
The department plans to expand buprenorphine availability on ambulances to treat opioid overdoses; paramedics have been trained and the drug will be placed on ambulances for initiation when clinically appropriate.
