Orange County EMS fights low response time

An aging population paired with limited personnel and equipment have contributed to the time it takes the county to respond to 911 calls, leaving officials concerned about what the loss of a potential revenue stream could mean for already strained resources.

Orange County Emergency Services officials discovered in the spring that their average response time was 17 minutes — five minutes longer than their goal, said Bernadette Pelissier, vice-chairwoman of the Boards of Commissioners.
Pelissier said this high response time has made EMS a priority for county commissioners.

“Even last year in a very tight budget, when we actually decreased our budget, we did give additional funds to emergency management because of the situation with the response time,” she said.

Orange County Emergency Services would have received more than $170,000 annually if the county’s quarter-cent sales tax had passed on Nov. 2. — money that Emergency Services Director Frank Montes de Oca said would have gone to increased training, staff and equipment.

Montes de Oca said his department was counting on the funding from the tax to help lower the response time to 12 minutes.

“But we understand that the voters spoke, and we respect that, and we’ll deal with it,” he said.

Pelissier said the stress on EMS resources is largely a result of the county’s aging population.

“You have to look at what is your population base,” she said. “It’s not just the number of the people. It’s the needs of people.

“If you had a community that was all 25-year-olds you’d have much a smaller need.”

Montes de Oca said EMS would like to have more public outreach programs to inform the elderly and other at-risk populations about behaviors that could decrease the number of times they call 911, like taking their medications regularly or following doctors’ instructions.

“But that takes money for brochures and for personnel to get out there,” Montes de Oca said.

And although the number of calls to emergency services has increased in the past five years, the department’s ambulances and personnel have not, said South Orange Rescue Squad Chief Matthew Mauzy.

The rescue squad, which is manned by an all-volunteer staff, provides “surge coverage” when all of the county’s ambulances are tied up in addition to supplying ambulances and EMTs to the area three nights a week, Mauzy said.
“Our intent is to add more resources onto the road, and it is certainly more economical to have volunteers to do it,” Mauzy said.

But, he said, there is still not enough funding or staff at the county level for the department to work as efficiently as it could.

Montes de Oca said the department hopes to add 35 to 40 positions to help ease the increasing demand, but these additions depend on future funding.

“We’re still working internally among our staff to determine budget needs,” he said. “When we get into the budget season, we’ll prepare some documents for (commissioners).”

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