Davidson County commissioners on Jan. 8 heard a presentation from NC Fire Chief Consulting that laid out a proposed independent study of the county’s emergency medical services system.

Greg Grayson, a former Greensboro fire chief who identified himself as part of NC Fire Chief Consulting, said the firm would pull the county’s CAD incident data, conduct GIS station-location analysis and gather staff and stakeholder input to produce prioritized recommendations and a strategic-plan template. "We approach this as an independent third party entity," Grayson said, describing work the group has done for Buncombe, Guilford and other North Carolina counties.

Regina Crawford, the consultants’ EMS specialist and a former director at North Carolina Office of Emergency Medical Services, said the team would analyze trend lines from about 2018 forward to capture pre-COVID, COVID and post-COVID changes and to identify peak hours and unit-hour utilization. "We try to look at what the data says," she said, noting the study would include a survey of personnel and a GIS-based heat map showing where most calls occur.

Commissioners pressed for specifics about benchmarks and whether county staff could perform the analysis internally. One commissioner asked whether the firm could show which counties meet a target such as "8 minutes, 90% of the time," so the board could weigh costs against service goals. Grayson said the firm can identify comparable counties and estimate the cost to improve performance to a stated service level.

Speakers also discussed integrating private third-party providers into 911 backup for lower-acuity (BLS) calls, and whether hospital systems and municipal departments could absorb transport work. The consultants said integrating external providers into dispatch plans is possible but requires technical work and contractual arrangements.

No formal vote to hire a consultant was taken; commissioners signaled interest in getting more detail and noted the study’s estimated timeline of roughly 3–5 months depending on data availability. Staff said another vendor will present at the February meeting as well.

The board moved on to other agenda items and invited the consultant to return if commissioners wanted to pursue the engagement.