12/23/12

On 12/23/12 at 9:20, CMED received a call involving a diabetic problem. It took CMED 0:01:14 to alert SEMS unit 202, Glenbrook, which took 5 minutes to be enroute and a total of 0:08:47 to reach the scene. I believe the 8 minutes and 47 seconds are counted as paramedic response time. The time to get enroute is included within the paramedic response time. What is not included but should be is the time it takes before CMED dispatches paramedics. It is not a criticism of CMED to note the dispatch time. CMED needs time to sort out which paramedic units are available. If the time to dispatch was included, the true paramedic response time was 10:01(8:47+1:14). On the same day at 11:18, CMED received a call involving hemorrhage/ laceration. It took almost 2 minutes to dispatch Post and 4 minutes to dispatch SEMS unit 202. Don't forget that CMED is on the phone trying to assess things which takes time. It took 3 minutes for unit 202 to get enroute and an all in 13 minutes and 38 seconds to reach the scene. If you add the 4 minutes time to dispatch, the total true paramedic response time is 17 minutes and 38 seconds. Both of the true paramedic response times reported above are unacceptable. The second one is wildly unacceptable. All of the above analysis excludes the time taken by DPD with the 911 call before CMED is alerted. This time should also be included in paramedic response times. Jayme Stevenson, Ron Hammer and members of the EMSRC need to explain under oath how the data they have been using relate to the details on the CMED report I obtained via FOI. Stay tuned. Walter Casey.