Kansas City`s First Month Of Fire Department Run EMS Is A Success

That was the message Tuesday as the Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department assessed the first month of its emergency medical service.

At a news conference at department headquarters, Fire Chief Tom DeKeyser praised the new service for establishing a solid performance baseline in July.

According to department statistics, the service, which made its debut July 1, responded to 1,397 calls in the first month. Of those, 1,219 were emergency calls. The average response time for emergencies was 5 minutes, 38 seconds, well within the department's mandated maximum response time of 9 minutes, 59 seconds.

Also during July, the department's fire trucks, designated as first responders in emergencies, handled 1,188 calls and averaged a response time of 3 minutes, 39 seconds. Fire trucks were first on the scene 81 percent of the time.

The department assumed responsibility for the city's ambulance service after voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax in June to fund it. The vote came nearly six months after Wyandotte County's Unified Board of Commissioners decided to end its contract with Metropolitan Ambulance Services Trust and establish its own emergency medical service.

The department hired and trained 60 new employees for the service. About 30 hours after they started their new jobs, many responded to the July 2 shooting at the ConAgra Foods plant that left six persons dead.

DeKeyser provided copies of an Aug. 5 letter from PWW Consulting Inc., an EMS consulting firm hired by the Unified Government, that singled out the shooting as an example of how the new ambulance service had fared in its first month.

The Fire Department, the letter said,