Anyone who has ever needed emergency medical services understands the anxiety that accompanies a medical emergency and the wait for EMS personnel to arrive. Typically, people are not thinking about who will show up to help them. They simply expect qualified responders to arrive and provide the care they need.It is important, however, for Falcon residents to understand how emergency medical services works in this area, and how it could change over the next few years.EMS in FalconWhen someone calls 911 asking for an ambulance, the fire department also responds. Firefighters with EMS training are often the first to arrive; they can provide patient care until the ambulance arrives.Every Falcon firefighter is cross-trained as an EMT (emergency medical technician), capable of providing BLS (basic life support) procedures for a wide array of injuries and illnesses. FFPD currently has only two firefighters certified to provide ALS (advanced life support), which is a higher level of pre-hospital care.Each ambulance from American Medical Response or other providers is staffed with an EMT and a paramedic who are BLS and ALS certified, respectively. This ensures that ALS level care is available on every call. Ambulances also transport patients to hospitals.Currently, AMR houses an ambulance at FFPD Station 1 at the corner of Meridian Ranch Boulevard and Stapleton Drive. Although residents may see an ambulance painted in Falcon fire department colors and emblazoned with its name, the ambulance belongs to AMR, and its staff are AMR employees.When this ambulance is at a Falcon fire station or somewhere in Falconís fire district, it generally has a faster response time than ambulances responding from outside the districtís boundaries. However, it is not dedicated solely to calls in the Falcon Fire Protection District, although it is housed at a Falcon fire station. This ambulance may be called to respond to locations on the eastern plains as well as within the city of Colorado Springs, leaving it unavailable for calls in Falconís jurisdiction. In those instances, an ambulance must respond from somewhere else, which means it takes longer to arrive at the scene.Just how long does it take?Several factors affect response times for both FFPD units and ambulances, but the most significant tends to be distance. The Falcon fire district covers 113 square miles, so unless crews happen to be in the immediate vicinity of an incident, it usually takes longer to reach the areas farthest away from the districtís staffed fire stations.In 2017, FFPDís average emergent response time for EMS calls and traffic accidents across the entire fire district was seven minutes and 11 seconds, compared to eight minutes and 21 seconds in 2016. By comparison, ambulance emergent response times in 2017 averaged 11 minutes and 40 seconds district wide, which is a slight increase over the 2016 average response time of 11 minutes and 32 seconds. The ambulance housed at FFPD Station 1 generally had quicker response times than ambulances coming from outside the fire district, but that varied by location within the fire district.In 2016, there were 145 instances of ambulances taking more than 20 minutes to arrive at a scene. In 2017, that number was 113.Greater demand for EMSIn 2017, FFPD logged a record 2,502 calls for service, an increase of 26.4 percent from the 1,979 calls recorded just five years earlier in 2013. EMS calls and traffic accidents accounted for 62 percent of the 2017 totalThe rising number of EMS calls, traffic accidents and other emergency incidents is putting a greater demand on county emergency response agencies, including Falconís fire department.Uncertain future for county ambulance servicesAMRís contract to provide ALS and ambulance transport services to Colorado Springs expires this year, and the city is pursuing options independent of the county Emergency Services Authority. AMRís contract with the ESA to provide those same services in unincorporated El Paso County expires in 2019, but so far there is no clear picture of what ambulance transport will look like for county residents after that.Because of the uncertainty of future ambulance services for FFPD residents, the FFPD board and leadership are actively exploring the possibility of providing ambulance service for residents of the Falcon fire district. However, this cannot be achieved with the fire districtís current funding. The district has hired a consultant to help determine the feasibility of a mill levy increase to support a district-operated ambulance service and an increase in firefighter staffing. (For more information, see the January FFPD board meeting article in the February issue of The New Falcon Herald and the January FFPD special board meeting in this issue.)The Falcon Fire Protection District wants residents to understand that running its own ambulance service is not about the money, because that effort will still require supplemental funding by the district. FFPD is working to ensure that residents and visitors continue to receive quality EMS care and transport when they need it most. In the end, it will be up to district residents to decide what emergency medical services in the Falcon area means to them.
