By Will Bryant
Staff Writer
Though it was only a work session for the Orange County Board of Commissioners, members of Orange County’s emergency services and fire departments packed the small room at the Link Government Services Center in Hillsborough on Tuesday night to hear the results of the first phase of a study assessing the performance of emergency crews in the county.
The board and those in attendance came expecting to hear feedback on EMS and fire department performance, but most left the meeting without a clear understanding of the study’s results and implications. Attendees were particularly interested in the study because of a March 2010 EMS report that county EMS was failing to meet performance goals and would remain unable to do so unless additional resources were allocated to the department.
Average response times and other data were missing from fire departments in northern Orange County, a fact that raised concerns with some members of the board.
“There are parts of Orange County that you don’t have data for, and that needs to be reconciled,†said Commissioner Alice Gordon. “They are getting money from us, so we need that data.â€
MMA Consulting Group Inc., hired by Orange County to carry out the study, said there were gaps in the data from departments in Mebane and elsewhere in the northern county, and didn’t want to risk compromising the accuracy of the study.
Board Chair Bernadette Pelissier said that the missing data brings the study to a halt.
“It’s not just an issue of unusable data,†said Pelissier. “It’s an issue of missing data. We have some of the data, but we can’t really use it.â€
Other commissioners also expressed concerns about the validity of the study.
According to the consulting firm’s presentation, Orange County Emergency Services responds to approximately 11,500 emergency medical calls for service annually. Ambulance transport services are required in approximately 7,000 of these incidents. The fire and rescue departments respond to approximately 10,000 calls for service annually.
Commissioner Barry Jacobs brought to the attention of the board that a high percentage of the calls were double-counted or triple-counted, in that all three services may have received a call for only one incident. It was also pointed out that the study may not have accounted for secondary calls.
However, some useful information did come out of the study. The consulting firm provided significant information on the strengths and weaknesses of the emergency crews’ performance over the past year.
Strengths included a strong central dispatch and infrastructure. According to the MMA presentation, 98.5 percent of rural roads in Orange County are within six miles of an existing emergency rescue station.
Weaknesses included radio limitations and delays in service. The March 2010 EMS report states that it takes an average of 17 minutes for a paramedic to reach a patient in Orange County.
But the board showed on Tuesday that they are prepared to do whatever it takes to fix these problems, and they are calling on the help of emergency crew representatives in the area to get it done fast.
Several of the commissioners agreed that the study shouldn’t move to the next phase until input is received from representatives of the fire department and emergency services.
“I’m not going to move forward with the next phase of the study until the data is filled in and a sit-down is had with the joint group,†said Pelissier. “All three parties should have a response.â€