FAYETTEVILLE — People suffering from injuries not considered life-threatening, such as a broken ankle or a minor fall, may not hear their ambulance approaching if they called 911.
Central EMS dispatch operators use a priority dispatch protocol, much like a script or list of questions, that evaluates the severity of a 911 injury. The calls are prioritized using six phonetic alphabet levels: omega, alpha, bravo, charlie, delta and echo.
Medical calls to 911 considered to be less critical will not be responded to by an ambulance using its sirens and lights beginning Jan. 1 by Central Emergency Medical Services, the ambulance service that covers most of Washington County. The move to lessen the response of bravo calls was approved Wednesday night by the Central EMS executive committee for a six-month trial.
BY THE NUMBERS
911 Calls Placed To Central EMS In 2010
Total calls for emergency service (January through November): 9,091
Bravo calls from January through November: 971
Source: Central EMS
The levels bravo, charlie, delta and echo today are responded to by paramedics using lights and sirens. Bravo calls are considered less critical and patients have no priority symptoms such as respiratory difficulties, chest pain, choking and childbirth, according to Central EMS documents.
Tracy Gregg, a dispatch operator and paramedic with 21 years of experience, cannot count on two hands how many times vehicles have crossed an intersection while his ambulance is looking to cross as well, he said.
“Fast isn't always the necessary case,” Gregg said. “Safe is more important.”
The less emergent response will dramatically reduce the risk of accidents not only by ambulance teams but also to vehicles that yield to an oncoming ambulance, said Gregg and Central EMS Chief Becky Stewart.
The use of lights and sirens reduces an ambulance response time by about 44 seconds in city traffic, according to a study by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch.
The academies, an organization to which Central EMS belongs, has endorsed the move. The academies created the dispatch protocol and Central EMS has used the priority levels for more than a decade.
Bravo calls will no longer be reported under the statistics used by Central EMS to measure 911 response times, Stewart said. Central EMS had not been tracking alpha calls, but will begin tracking alpha and bravo calls at the start of next year, she told the committee.
“I’m concerned with the consistency with the way we’re reporting,” said Fayetteville Fire Chief David Dayringer, a member of the committee. “I don’t want to change the standard we’re doing right now. I am interested in the safety of our folks out there running and the citizens out there.”
Central EMS crews may see a bit more pressure in making sure they meet the response time, with one less category to measure response times. As the number calls currently tracked shrinks, each response time becomes more important, Stewart said.
Each month, Central EMS expects its ambulance drivers to reach calls within specified time limits 90 percent of the time. When responding to emergency calls within Fayetteville, ambulances have nine minutes to arrive on scene. They have 13 minutes when responding to smaller towns in Washington County and 21 minutes for unincorporated areas of the county.