The medic units outside of Seattle in King County operate on the fire radio channels - correct? I am looking at the 2009 Annual Report for King County Medic One. Average BLS dispatch time is listed as 34 seconds, but ALS dispatch time is listed as 2 minutes. I cant figure out why there is a difference. ALS and BLS are dispatched at the same time on the same talkgroups - right? Peter Sz Boston Mass
Question About King County Medics
- Thread starter zerg901
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That is because it's very common for a call to be initially toned out as BLS. Then get upgraded to ALS after the call taker has gathered more info about the Pt. and or situation.
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rodentkj - Thanks alot - I guess my frame of reference is very different from the Seattle area frame of reference. In my town, just about all EMS calls are dispatched as ALS calls. We do have many elderly folks - that might be the cause. Peter Sz
madhatter66
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Not sure about King, but I know Kitsap dispatches on the same basic criteria system that it derived from King County. It is also possible that BLS are being directly dispatched to a private company which would make for a much better "looking" average, but in reality its a sham number, and it is possible that ALS is being dispatched by the dispatch center. Kitsap has an overall 2008 or 2009 (cant remember which year) average of around 2min for ALL fire calls, although almost every call actually goes from received to dispatched in less then 10sec. The high average comes from a fire agency that requests that we hold certain calls. I wouldn't put a ton of faith in the average time numbers you see from any dispatch center, there is WAY to many ways to skew them, even by accident or just because one agency doesn't want to play the same way as the rest of the group.
madhatter66 - thanks for the additional info.
1. The 2009 King County EMS Annual Report took a look at their cardiac arrest saves and losses. Basically they said - we are saving 50% - we cant save 25% more because they are over 80 or are obese - dispatch times are not a factor - bystanders do CPR 60% of the time - bystander CPR is started within 3 minutes on average - BLS travel time is 5 minutes on average - ALS travel time is 8 minutes on average
2, NFPA recently released a mobilization time study - IIRC fire dispatch time was 60 seconds on average - EMS dispatch time was 60 seconds days, and 30 seconds nights - turnout / chute times averaged from 60 seconds to 180 seconds
3. The recent Associated Press article on 'hands only CPR' hoped for an improvement on saves from 5% to 15%
4. I spoke to a MD last week who told me that there is only maybe 3 minutes to save someone who gets a blockage at the top of the right ventricle (I guess that is a major supply site for the heart muscle) Prevention was mentioned as a very important factor.
5. Possibly 350,000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest in the USA annually.
6. If King County "pages out" all EMS calls via radio, then the tracking of dispatch times, turnout times, and arrival times might be very easy for the public. The only "hidden" time interval would be between the time when the caller dials 911 and when the call is "paged out" ("call taking time" plus "hold time").
Peter Sz
1. The 2009 King County EMS Annual Report took a look at their cardiac arrest saves and losses. Basically they said - we are saving 50% - we cant save 25% more because they are over 80 or are obese - dispatch times are not a factor - bystanders do CPR 60% of the time - bystander CPR is started within 3 minutes on average - BLS travel time is 5 minutes on average - ALS travel time is 8 minutes on average
2, NFPA recently released a mobilization time study - IIRC fire dispatch time was 60 seconds on average - EMS dispatch time was 60 seconds days, and 30 seconds nights - turnout / chute times averaged from 60 seconds to 180 seconds
3. The recent Associated Press article on 'hands only CPR' hoped for an improvement on saves from 5% to 15%
4. I spoke to a MD last week who told me that there is only maybe 3 minutes to save someone who gets a blockage at the top of the right ventricle (I guess that is a major supply site for the heart muscle) Prevention was mentioned as a very important factor.
5. Possibly 350,000 people die of sudden cardiac arrest in the USA annually.
6. If King County "pages out" all EMS calls via radio, then the tracking of dispatch times, turnout times, and arrival times might be very easy for the public. The only "hidden" time interval would be between the time when the caller dials 911 and when the call is "paged out" ("call taking time" plus "hold time").
Peter Sz
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