EMS response times, drones, staffing shared with commissioners

ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Board of Commissioners received an update from Barry Britt, administrative director of FirstHealth Regional Transport Services, Tuesday afternoon.

In 2022, FirstHealth EMS responded to 8,000 calls, or a little over 700 calls a month, with an average response time of about nine minutes and 27 seconds. Britt said the goal is to keep response times under ten minutes. They transported more than 6,000 people in the year.

“What I wanted to share with you is that 14% [of calls] are trauma. Most people think that heart attacks are going to be the number one call response,” Britt explained. “You look at those percentages of the overall total of calls, and we see in this particular situation in Richmond County, trauma…does exceed the number and is the number one call that we respond to.”

Majority of the calls that EMS responded to fell under BLS, or Basic Life Support calls. These calls mean patients did not require immediate life saving measures that would require a paramedic. 35% of calls required an ALS, or Advanced Life Support, where patients were given IV and medications as needed.

“And what a Basic Life Support call is, is one you don’t even start an IV on,” Britt said. “You do an assessment on that patients, you definitely work them up and determine what their call initially was, and what you actually see when you get to the patient.”

The aforementioned statistics are for all of Richmond County’s municipalities except for Hamlet, who has their own EMS service. FirstHealth backs up Hamlet EMS about once a a day.

“Hamlet runs an awesome EMS service…but they are firemen as well. So, I think they play a dual role, but we do have to back them up,” Britt said.

Due to the high number of BLS calls, FirstHealth wants to set up more BLS ambulances to match the necessary need. The change would allow ALS ambulances to respond to more dire situations, although how much it would save is unknown.

“So we don’t know exactly the cost savings of that, but it does have some savings and what the savings are, are going to be more related to the future,” Britt said. “So instead of having to add another fill paramedic to the truck, and say a certain location, is we add a BLS asset, it is going to cost less than a full asset.”

Another change that could be seen within the next few years is a change from 24 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts as a way to cut down on liability. Britt said that personnel shortage is the primary reason that this can’t be made, and when fully-staffed, the change could be made in a day.

“That’s [the 24-hour shifts] kind of becoming a liability for most EMS systems,” explained Britt. “They become fatigued at night when they’re working those 24-hour shifts…What could occur, it could be the wrong medication given to a patient, it could be an accident on the way to an emergency.”

To address staffing concerns, FirstHealth opened a paramedic academy five years ago. Since then, there have been 42 graduates with a 70% pass rate, higher than the states average of 48%. Students that go to the academy have all expenses covered by FirstHealth to become North Carolina certified paramedics. The 42 weeklong classes include intense training and 1,200 hours of didactic and clinical rotations.

“80% of the graduates are still employed by First Health,” Britt announced. “Tim said the grads have been promoted to higher positions within the system.”

FirstHealth is also working with Duke Energy to introduce AED carrying drones, similar to the kind that deliver food and groceries. These drones would respond to cardiac arrest victims, ideally faster than an ambulance could as they wouldn’t have to deal with traffic.

“But at the same time, there are more questions than answers,” Britt explained. “This is a futuristic project that is going to be a reality, especially in more rural areas.”

The drones are not the only ones carrying AEDs. Unlike states such as South Carolina, North Carolina Law Enforcement is trained in first aid and First Health would like to see an AED in every first responder’s vehicle. NC Highway Patrol has already been assigned AEDs to each trooper vehicle.

“We would love to see an AED in the trunk of every police car, sheriff’s car, anybody that is out there on the streets patrolling,” Britt said. “If you have an AED in their trunk, they can get there much faster than you get EMS.”