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Community-Based First Responders Hit the Streets of Jersey City
Emergency medical officials in Jersey City, NJ, are continually seeking ways to improve their already low response times. So in 2013, when Mayor Steven Fulop asked officials with the Jersey City Medical Center (JCMC) to consider incorporating a unique lifesaving concept into the EMS program, they agreed to listen.
Fulop set up a meeting with Eli Beer, founder and president of United Hatzalah in Israel; Mark Gerson, chairman of United Hatzalah/United Rescue; Joseph Scott, president and CEO of JCMC; and Robert Luckritz, director of EMS and Government Relations at JCMC.
The result: Jersey City became the first city in the United States to deploy the United Rescue program that uses citizen volunteers to respond instantaneously to emergency medical calls in their neighborhoods.
In January 2015, the city and JCMC launched the mobile app-based community response system for ambulance-related emergency calls. Also known as the Community Based Emergency Care (CBEC) program, it is modeled after the United Hatzalah program that has been used in Israel since 2006. The goal is to spread the program throughout the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The United Hatzalah program in Israel fields more than 2,500 trained volunteers who respond to more than 200,000 emergency calls annually.
Both programs are fully funded through philanthropic donations raised by a group of contributors, foundations, corporate donors and others via United Rescue. The program does not cost anything for JCMC or Jersey City taxpayers.
When residents call 9-1-1 with a medical emergency, dispatchers can deploy both an ambulance and a community volunteer. The dispatch system sends the alert via NowForce crowdsourcing software, and looks for trained volunteers within about a quarter mile or 5-minute response time.
The idea is to dispatch volunteers who can quickly navigate on foot or via “ambu-cycles” (modified motorcycles currently used in Israel but not New Jersey). The goal is to have a volunteer responder reach the patient within 3 minutes to begin treatment before the ambulance arrives with more equipment and skilled paramedics.
According to United Rescue, ambulance response times in U.S. urban areas average 9-11 minutes. The national standard for ambulance response times is 8 minutes, 59 seconds; the Jersey City Medical Center ambulance response time is 4 minutes, 28 seconds, among the lowest in the country. With United Rescue, the goal is to reduce patient-side responses to 3 minutes.
United Rescue partners with city governments and community leaders, providing the technology, identifying sources of capital and supporting volunteer recruitment and training efforts. The program is administered by the local emergency authorities in each city.
One concern for Jersey City was getting volunteers from the community. However, within the first day of the announcement last January, the city had 100 applicants. Now, the city has more than 1,000 applicants from a population of 300,000 in a 14-square-mile area.
“The mayor reached out and opened it up to the community,” says Luckritz, of JCMC. “He put out press releases, had it on social media. The mayor has been very engaged. We were absolutely floored by the response from the community. We were shocked that people are willing to give up the time to take the courses and help their neighbors, without any compensation.”
JCMC is teaching classes of 25–30 at a time; so far, they have trained 52 volunteers. The volunteers undergo a full screening that is the same as the hiring process for JCMC EMTs and paramedics. It includes a full criminal background check, an interview and medical screening. Volunteers also must provide reference letters that are verified.
Additionally, the volunteers must take an 84-hour emergency medical responder course that is held two nights a week and some Saturdays over several weeks. The course includes 60 hours of classroom training, 12 hours of ride time with the ambulance crews and 12 hours in the dispatch center.
Upon completion of the course, each volunteer responder is issued a basic EMS medical bag with oxygen, soft supplies, tourniquets, etc., as well as an AED. Volunteers also are issued a special vest identifying them as being affiliated with JCMC and United Rescue.
Luckritz said the volunteers come from all backgrounds, including business owners, construction workers, homemakers, and even executives from the financial district. Additionally, Jersey City city employees have been given the option to take the course one morning a week.
“The mayor offered it to them on their paid time,” Luckritz says.
Volunteers are only deployed to calls that are deemed safe, such as choking, bleeding, heart attacks, strokes. They are not deployed to unsafe calls, such as gunshot wounds, stabbings and assaults.
Luckritz said refresher courses will be offered, along with other seminars, training and get-togethers to keep the volunteers engaged. Luckritz also said it was important to keep EMTs and paramedics engaged.
“I’m surprised how easily the program folded into our EMS system,” Luckritz says. “We have a lot of career professionals and we were concerned about the pushback of introducing lay folks into the system and sending them to emergencies that the paramedics have done for years. So we offered to have our employees develop the training and teach the courses. That way, they got to know the volunteers and help everyone feel like they were part of the system.”
Luckritz said that the city also now has more than 1,000 identified volunteers who can be deployed during major incidents, such as a large fire or hurricanes. But the real benefit is having someone on site in less than 3 minutes for normal medical emergencies.
“We have the ability with the software to call them in to help treat victims at the scene, or rehab firefighters,” Luckritz says. “We also have identified areas where we have gaps in response. Jersey City is growing rapidly and we have new high-rises being constructed. Vertical response times can be longer because you might get the ambulance to the front of the building quickly, but then you still have to get up to the 70th floor. We also looked at colleges and universities, where we might have limited vehicle access, or the call comes in with the main address of the school but the incident might be at Jones Hall. We don’t know what street that is on and have to find it, and find out if it’s even accessible by vehicle. If we have trained volunteers already on site, they can start treatment until we get there.”
To learn more about these programs, visit:
- United Hatzalah: www.israelirescue.org
- United Rescue: www.unitedrescue.us
- Jersey City Medical Center EMS: www.jcmcems.org
