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Lifeguard Ambulance Services surprising even itself with times
Not only is Lifeguard experiencing a higher call volume than its had expected when it took over Santa Rosa County ambulance services last August, but its crews are showing up on the medical emergency scene faster than even they had expected. "It is exciting," said Lifeguard Operations Manager Jason Kimbrell. "You can't run into me at the grocery store without me telling you how excited I am about our progress." Lifeguard took over for the previous ambulance service provider, Rural Metro, last August under the old county contract requirements, which meant they had to respond to calls within the urban areas of the county within 12 minutes, and to calls within the rural areas within 20 minutes. The new contract for Lifeguard officially kicked in Oct. 1, 2007. That's when Lifeguard had to meet the county's new standards - responding to calls in the urban areas within 10 minutes for the majority of calls, and within an average of 18 minutes in rural areas. Santa Rosa County reports show Lifeguard is arriving to its calls within an average of 6 minutes, 17 seconds in the urban areas, and within an average of 11:43 in the rural areas. In May, Lifeguard received 1,067 calls countywide. "But the average time is really not the most important or the most exciting times registered," Kimbrell said. "It is the fractal response times, which are the actual number of calls we respond to within the contract requirements. And for May, in the 1,067 calls we responded to, we were on-scene for 9.49 out of every 10 calls we got in the urban areas in less than the contract required time of 10 minutes. Now, that is amazing; that makes me smile, for sure. And in rural areas in May, we were on-scene in less than the 18 minutes required in 9.25 calls out of every 10." An initial higher number of calls than expected forced Lifeguard to quickly re-adjust everything. "And, of course, as we come into spring and summer, we know we will have a higher number of calls, especially around the beach areas," Kimbrell said. "Each month, our calls have increased, and our response times have to keep up." Kimbrell said one way Lifeguard is decreasing the time it takes to reach an emergency call is by using quick-response vehicles like Expedition SUVs. "The quick-response SUVs have all the same equipment and resources on board that an ambulance does, except a stretcher," she said. "So the Expedition can arrive at a scene first, stabilize the patient, and then when the ambulance arrives they can transport. So if the ambulance is busy someplace else when a call comes in, a quick-response vehicle can respond first. "Our medical director, Kim Landry, responds to calls on one of our quick-response vehicles, so a patient might even get a doctor responding to a call right at their home." Lifeguard has as many as 10 ambulances roaming the county during maximum call-volume periods, and at least five during off-peak hours, plus the five quick-response SUVs. When Lifeguard was granted the Santa Rosa contract last summer, owners John and Debra Roche of Gulf Breeze purchased a vacant car dealership in Milton to refurbish as a county headquarters. With the heat of summer arriving so quickly, Kimbrell said Lifeguard has developed a Red Flag Deployment plan for the beaches. "There are areas along the beaches that are now open this year that have not been open since Hurricane Ivan - like (part of) the road between Navarre Beach and Pensacola Beach," she said. "So we have added some extra coverage for those areas and are moving some quickresponse vehicles into the area to be ready. The days that red flags are flying in the beach areas, we will especially have units ready to respond to beach calls quickly." |
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