The news is good for WEMS and Worcester.
EMS TRENDS
Since 1991, UMass Memorial EMS has provided emergency ambulance services in Worcester at no cost to the City.11 The all-paramedic, hospital- based service operates a fleet of six ambulances staffed by 50 full-time and 25 part-time paramedics.
Over the last ten years, the EMS workload has risen and response times have declined (Chart 812 and Chart 9). UMass Memorial responded to over 30% more incidents in 2011 than it did in 2002. During the same period, its average response time to all incidents has declined by 55 seconds. Its average response time to so-called priority one calls (life-threatening injuries or illnesses) went down 3 seconds to 5:05.
EMS TRENDS
Since 1991, UMass Memorial EMS has provided emergency ambulance services in Worcester at no cost to the City.11 The all-paramedic, hospital- based service operates a fleet of six ambulances staffed by 50 full-time and 25 part-time paramedics.
Over the last ten years, the EMS workload has risen and response times have declined (Chart 812 and Chart 9). UMass Memorial responded to over 30% more incidents in 2011 than it did in 2002. During the same period, its average response time to all incidents has declined by 55 seconds. Its average response time to so-called priority one calls (life-threatening injuries or illnesses) went down 3 seconds to 5:05.
UMass staff believes that improved
response times in recent years could be
the result of the employment in April
2009 of new global positioning system
(GPS) and CAD (computer aided
dispatch) system technologies. These
allow dispatchers to view the exact
location of each EMS vehicle, and
automatically identify street routes and
calculate drive times. Also, in 2009,
UMass Memorial EMS added six field
supervisors to the system for purposes
of better quality oversight and better
integration with fire and police services,
and in 2010, it added a Quality
Assurance/ Performance Improvement
specialist to oversee the preparation and
analysis of metrics as well as monitoring
the performance of paramedics. These
and other recent improvements, which
total millions of dollars, were
undertaken and fully funded by UMass
Memorial at no cost to the City of
Worcester.
It should be noted that, with the exception of cases of cardiac arrest, rapid response times do not necessarily enhance a patient’s survival chances.
The whole report here:
http://www.wrrb.org/files/downloads/ongoing/benchmarking/pub_safety/2012/benchmarking-public-safety-in-worcester-2012.pdf
It should be noted that, with the exception of cases of cardiac arrest, rapid response times do not necessarily enhance a patient’s survival chances.
The whole report here:
http://www.wrrb.org/files/downloads/ongoing/benchmarking/pub_safety/2012/benchmarking-public-safety-in-worcester-2012.pdf
