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Calls For Emergency Services Increasing; Response Times Improving
December 29, 2009
The calls for emergency services are increasing in Escambia County, and recently released data shows that response time is improving.
The average response time for Escambia Fire Rescue has improved slightly to 5.77 minutes, compared to 5.99 minutes last year, according to a recent “State of the County Report”. The county’s fire services includes 300 active volunteer firefighters in addition to paid crews. A grant will allow the county to hire 12 new firefighters.
During the year, Escambia County EMS had 33,836 emergency calls and responded to 84.37 percent of those calls within 10 minutes. That is an improvement over 81.03 percent with 10 minutes during the previous year.
The 911 dispatch center received 182,750 calls, up from 166,934 during the previous year.
Pictured: A 911 call is answered in Escambia County’s dispatch center. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
2 Responses to “Calls For Emergency Services Increasing; Response Times Improving”
moe,
The fractile response for Emergency Medical Services is stated, 84.37% within 10 minutes. You are correct in that this is a much clearer way of documenting service levels. However, nationally the fire service uses response time averages.
Thank you for the interest in the level of service you receive.
Mike Weaver
Escambia County
EMS Chief
Improvement to *average* response time is fine but it is a meaningless measure of the actual service level. Average simply means that for every response time of 1 minute there was another response of 10 minutes – great for the recipient of short responses, but not so good for the longer waits.
A more meaningful measure is known as fractile response time – measured by dividing the responses into cumulative fractions. After removing severe outliers that are recorded in error (for certain, not just assumed) the data are presented often as 10% increments (i.e. 80 % of responses were under 6 minutes, 90% of responses were under 7 minutes). This presents a much clearer and more meaningful picture of the degree to which EVERY citizen (or at least the vast majority) are actually being served – not just the mathematical average.