The Fire Department and the 911 Center adopted a “chief complaint” protocol consisting of 10 potentially life-threatening medical emergencies for which the 911 Center automatically dispatches a fire crew. All fire crews carry and are trained to use automatic external defibrillators, and are able to provide first-responder-level medical treatment.

Results of the review show the average dispatch processing time — the time it takes to receive, evaluate, and dispatch a call — has been trimmed from 2 minutes, 22 seconds during this same time frame in 2007, to 1 minute, 24 seconds in 2008.

“This improvement in dispatching and response time shows that the use of the ‘chief complaint protocols’ has been effective in streamlining the process on medical emergencies,” Fire Chief Barry Rowell said. “We have also seen a reduction of ‘non-essential medical calls.’

"These are calls that basically are non- life threatening where our intervention has little or no effect on patient outcome. Of course, we will still respond at the request of the ambulance services, even if the initial dispatch protocols are not met.”

Data shows that by reducing the non-essential calls the overall EMS call volume has decreased by 28 percent.

“The community benefits in several ways as a result of the changes instituted in August. First, citizens receive a faster response to potentially life threatening emergencies. Second, the Department is using less fuel and has reduced wear and tear on fire apparatus," said Rowell.

“Another benefit to the community is that, with the 28 percent reduction in non-life threatening calls, the chances of a fire unit being tied up on a less critical call are reduced. When this happens, the next closest units have to respond to any additional calls in the first unit’s district. This adds to the reliability factor. The bottom line is better service and reduced costs for the Department and the City.”