6 minute to all service area
By Jarod Wells
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 5:00 p.m.
Read more: Local, Health
(Adams County, Ill.) When you and your family need emergency care, you want the ambulance to get there fast.
KHQA's Jarod Wells discovered that Adams County EMS has a six-minute response time to emergency calls.
That's faster than the Illinois Administrative Code suggests as an optimum response time.
Jarod asked the head of the ambulance service, Paul Davis, how his crews accomplish this for such a large geographic area or this KHQA Factfinder Report.
Emergency sirens are the sound of comfort when you need medical attention. If you live, work or visit Adams County, even more comforting is knowing you'll hear that sound quickly.
"We've consistently seen between 6 and 8 minutes," said Chief Paul Davis.
Proximity is the key.
"Where our rigs are based versus where the calls are. For instance, I mentioned the call volume, the 45% call volume in the northwest part of Quincy. Our ambulances are based near the middle of Quincy and so that gives us a good jumping off point from the base," said Davis.
Bases in Mendon, Camp Point and Liberty help with response times to the rural areas of the county.
"We've got a big responsibility to the community and response time is just one part of that. Paramedics maintaining the skill level, maintaining the rigs, working with Blessing Hospital, Quincy Area EMS System and everyone working together," said Davis.
Do you feel like you have something to live up to?
"Well I think there's always a standard of care to live up to. We've set a standard in Adams County, primarily because we're the only EMS provider in Adams County. We don't want to go backwards on that, we want to keep moving forward. We want to make sure that the level of care is appropriate and that the standard of care is being pursued," said Davis.
We also asked Davis about the possibility of a 6th ambulance for Adams County.
He told Jarod the ambulance board won't make a decision until Congress makes a decision on health care reform.
But the board does want your opinion.
It's holding three town hall meetings starting next week.
August 19th - JWCC 6 PM
August 26th - Quincy Senior and Family Resource Center 6pm
August 27th - Paloma Shelter House 6pm
