N.C. Officials Hope Changes Put More Ambulances in Residential Areas

Feb. 08--A recent shift in some Caldwell County Emergency Medical Services vehicles is part of what officials hope will be a longer-term redistribution to put more ambulances and other vehicles closer to residential areas, which could shave critical seconds off the time it takes for help to arrive.

On Feb. 1, an EMS medic truck from Lenoir moved to Hudson, and an ambulance from Hudson moved to North Catawba Fire and Rescue. In addition, an ambulance now alternates between the Granite Falls and Hudson EMS bases.

Emergency Services Director Dino DiBernardi said that the average time that patients in this county wait for an ambulance from the time it is dispatched is 7.41 minutes, "which is amazing for a rural community," DiBernardi said, especially since the national average is 9.4 minutes, but he wants to improve the response time further.

"If you've ever had to call 911, it feels like forever until an ambulance gets there. That heart attack in Yadkin Valley is just as important as that heart attack in Hudson," he said.

Emergency services has seen the number of calls it gets increase by more than 13 percent over the past three years, going from 11,300 in 2013 to 11,811 calls in 2014 and 12,834 last year.

"The volume of calls alone is not the challenge most times, although it does create a strain," he said. "The number of calls which come out at a time often creates more of a strain ... and increases our reliance on our backup ambulances at the rescue departments."

It isn't unusual for there to be "five to seven calls in a 15-minute time period," he said, which means crews from local fire stations often stand by to help.

DiBernardi said he hopes to eventually redistribute some ambulances to eight new, small EMS bases throughout the county, if the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners approves the five-year plan.

DiBernardi said single-unit bases are being used successfully throughout the United States, and that if this plan is approved, "We will have ambulances touching or in every community."

The cost of the plan is uncertain. DiBernardi said that he will research that further if the commissioners tell him to.

Copyright 2016 - News-Topic, Lenoir, N.C.