Fla. County Hopes New Ambulance Cuts Response Times, Meets Growth

March 24--MANATEE -- A new Manatee County Advanced Life Support Ambulance in Parrish is slated to go into service in early May.

The ambulance will be the first new 24-hour ambulance added in about eight years, and is the county's 19th full-time transport ambulance.

"We are still on track to open the truck," Manatee County Public Safety Director Bob Smith said Wednesday.

County commissioners authorized the execution of the shared facilities agreement this week with the Parrish Fire District. The agreement, which still needs to be approved by the Parrish Fire District Commission, will allow EMS to share space within the fire department.

Parrish Fire Department Chief Michael Johnson said there is a lot of community support for the Parrish ambulance.

"We've heard from many people in the community that that's their desire to have that ambulance there," Johnson said.

The new ambulance and related equipment cost $417,785, which is being paid by public safety impact fees. The personnel and operating expenses for the ambulance this year will cost approximately $263,000, which will be paid for by the ambulance charges. For the following full year, it will cost $526,030.

The fire commission is set to take action on the agreement during its April 26 meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. at the fire district, 12132 U.S. 301 North, Parrish.

Once the fire commission approves the agreement, Smith said they will work on the logistics of getting the ambulance and related equipment into the building.

The county has already ordered the ambulance, which takes about six months to arrive, and selected the seven additional paramedics needed to staff the unit from the county's existing staff. The county is already recruiting for medics to backfill those slots on the county's roster.

"We have already gone through the process of our station bidding to allow people who are interested in serving in that station to bid on that schedule," he said.

Should the ambulance not arrive in time for the tentative opening, the county has another ambulance to use in the interim, Smith said.

The county has had increasing call volume, and with the all planned growth in North Manatee, they are expecting it to go up even more.

While Manatee County has been averaging about 170 calls a day, the county broke a record on March 18 with 180 calls in a 24-hour period.

EMS officials have predicted that an ambulance in Parrish would respond to 1,000 calls a year, and that number could increase as more homes are built in Parrish.

The closest truck presently is at the North River Fire Station in Ellenton, which "has a pretty lengthy response time," Smith said.

"Putting this unit out there helps address increase call volume in the area and puts a resource out there to cut down on response time," he said.

With the addition of the paramedics providing the advanced life support, the response times would be much lower, Johnson said.

"It's a benefit to any community whenever they could put an ALS ambulance into that community," he said.

Claire Aronson, Manatee County reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024. Follow her on Twitter@Claire_Aronson.

Copyright 2016 - The Bradenton Herald