Atlas Twp. – Waiting for an ambulance to respond to a 9-1-1 call may get faster for township residents.
A study of ambulance response times conducted in March of 2007 concluded that the township had an average response time of 12.2 minutes. The overall average for the county was 7.23 minutes.
‘Atlas Township was the second slowest response time in Genesee County,? said Bruce Trevithick, executive director of the Genesee County Medical Control Authority.
‘When people move to rural communities, they have to take into consideration that emergency response times may be slower.?
To help assist in improving the response time, Groveland Township Fire Chief Steve McGee applied to the Genesee County Medical Control Authority for a license which will enable his department to re-spond legally to the township’s emergency 9-1-1 calls.
McGee said the decision was made to apply for the license after he and Township Supervisor Paul Amman agreed the partnership would speed up ambulance response time for residents.
‘We will have to wait to see how adding Groveland Township’s ambulances will affect response times. However, whenever a resource is added in close proximity, it is beneficial,? said Trevithick.
Putting an end to the five-minute rule when ambulances are unable to respond to the scene of an accident within a five-minute time frame, Trevithick said, will also speed up 9-1-1 response time.
‘Currently fire trucks don’t have to be dispatched right away to the scene of an accident,? said McGee. ‘They are only called if it has been more than five minutes. By the end of next year, the five- minute rule will be changing. We are in the process of concluding our protocols. We will do away with that procedure because fire trucks are required to have AED’s (Automatic External Defibrillators) on board. If the fire department is dispatched right away, instead of after five minutes, those devices can be placed on a patient if they are having a cardiac event, which shocks the patient and will save their life.?
McGee said time is valuable.
‘Our township has to come first, so unfortunately responding to the Atlas 9-1-1 calls is not a guarantee,? he said. ‘However, we will be able to give Atlas an ambulance to transport patients to the nearest hospital during our peak hours and when we can.?
McGee said the reason he applied for the license was to make everything legal.because Groveland Township borders Genesee County.
‘Many times we have gone out to the scene of an accident and the patient has been on one side or the other side of the county, so we really needed to make sure that when we do transport a patient it is legal.?
McGee and Amman agree that Atlas Township does not have the demand for an ambulance service and cannot afford to have their own ambulance service because it would not be cost effective for them.
‘Atlas doesn’t have the number of calls it needs to support their own ambulance service,? said McGee. ‘It has been tried many times before. I was a part of all that when they stationed private ambulance services at the Lion’s Club. There just weren’t enough calls coming in, they couldn’t sustain it, so they went out of business. Most of the money an ambulance service makes is when they pick up patients at the scene of an accident. Politicians have to make the best decisions with the limited amount of dollars they have. They don’t make random decisions.?
Amman said an ambulance service is expensive and Groveland Township has the resources because they passed a millage he estimates to be approximately $1.5 million to support their own ambulance service.
‘Between Groveland and Atlas townships, you have two government entities working together for the betterment of both, so it is to everybody’s advantage,? he said.