EMS unit moving to northern Orange Co.

A local Emergency Medical Services unit is moving to Hillsborough in an effort to respond faster to emergencies in northern Orange County.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners approved the move last week. The relocation is expected to cost $50,000.

Col. Frank Montes de Oca, the county’s EMS director, said the relocation of the unit from Chapel Hill to Hillsborough is targeted to take place in January.

Montes de Oca cited the increasing number of calls in the northern part of Orange County as one of the main reasons behind the move.

“The decisions are made based on statistical analysis,” he said. “We looked at the call loads from October 2008 to October 2009. We realized we have a lot of service calls in Hillsborough.”

Orange County’s Emergency Services department will move both their ambulances from the New Hope Church Road location. There are two remaining units in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area and one in Efland.

Montes de Oca said the move would extend emergency coverage throughout the area.

“The one concept that was presented to the board is to move the station to the communities which they serve,” he said. “It allows us to not only serve the Hillsborough area but also the northern end of the county.”

County Commissioner Alice Gordon said she relied on Montes de Oca’s expertise in making a decision.

“What’s the balance to having the units deployed geographically and having them deployed where you get the most calls?” she said. “It’s really an unanswerable question. We deferred to his professional judgment.”

The Orange County EMS has a current response time goal of 12 minutes, but actual response times range from 17 to 19 minutes, EMS Operations Manager Kim Woodward said.

“We’re hoping the addition of the unit in the Hillsborough area will decrease the response time,” she said.

Woodward said the move should lower response times in northern Orange County by up to three and a half minutes.

The unit’s move to Hillsborough should not affect response times in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, as EMS will add another unit in northern Chapel Hill, Woodward said.

She said the new ambulance will be added within the next three months.

Along with the first unit’s move to Hillsborough, the second unit on New Hope Church Road will move south to a smaller building in January. The exact location has not been determined.



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