Ambulance Service See Increase In Calls

FAYETTEVILLE — One in four patients suffering a heart attack arrives alive at a hospital in a Central Emergency Medical Service ambulance.

That success rate is higher than the national rate of just more than one in 10 patients, or 11 percent, according to Central’s 2012 annual report. The ambulance service operates in Fayetteville and most of Washington County south Springdale.

The annual report shows more service calls from the year before and similar response times to emergencies. Central is the only ambulance service in the state to receive a reaccreditation from an international organization for emergency dispatchers.

Medical emergency dispatchers, following a strict script, give 911 callers instructions to initiate CPR on a patient suffering cardiac arrest while waiting for responders to arrive.

“Our dispatchers provide pre-arrival instructions for people in cardiac arrest,” said Becky Stewart, Central’s chief. “So they will tell the caller how to do CPR. They coach them through it. That’s bystander CPR and that’s a big part of our success.”

Local responders, such as fire crews, arrive and take over while waiting for ambulance crews to arrive, she said.

Central responded to 20,640 calls for service, including emergencies and wheelchair transportation, according to the report. The report shows a 6 percent increase in calls in 2012 from the prior year.

Stewart said Central expected the increase. The service is working to establish an ambulance station at the Fayetteville Fire Marshal’s Office.

Central’s Executive Committee last week approved a $154,000 offer to buy the building from the city.

The building at 833 N. Crossover Road in east Fayetteville would increase Central’s capability to respond to emergencies in a densely populated area along with better response times to smaller cities such as Goshen and Elkins, Stewart said.

Arrival times for emergencies stayed relatively flat in Fayetteville, smaller towns and rural areas in 2012 compared to 2011, according to the report.

Central requires crews to arrive at emergencies within 9 minutes in Fayetteville, 13 minutes in small towns and 21 minutes in rural areas. The service sets an annual goal of reaching those emergencies within that time frame 90 percent of the time.

Ambulance crews met those goals 85 percent of the time in Fayetteville, 86 percent in smaller towns and 84 percent in rural areas.

The International Academies for Emergency Dispatch closely monitors the interaction between dispatchers and 911 callers. In March, the academies again designated Central as an Emergency Medical Dispatch Center of Excellence.

Central first achieved the designation seven years ago, said Steve Harrison, assistant chief. Central was the 110th dispatch center to receive the designation worldwide, according to the academies.

The academies have accredited 129 dispatch centers out of about 3,000, said Carolyn Page, associate director.

Greg Brown, section chief for emergency medical services at the state Department of Health, said the designation means dispatchers make decisions on how to send ambulances in emergencies keeping public safety in mind.

Dispatchers are able to determine if an ambulance should respond with lights and sirens or respond at slower pace without lights and sirens thus reducing the chance of vehicle accidents, Brown said.

“It’s really a very innovative program that allows the patient to get triaged correctly and gets the right resources in the right amount of time,” Brown said.