The Coweta County Fire Department at a recent work session of the Coweta County Commission asked the board to consider a plan that would provide additional Advanced Life Support (ALS) capabilities to county residents by adding ALS teams to three fire stations in need of additional service.
Commissioners Feb. 15 voted to proceed with the concept planning and training for the request that would lead to adding the three ALS teams.
Assistant Chief Todd Moore during the work session said the purpose of the initiative was to meet the national standard by providing ALS services within eight minutes. That response time, said Moore, enhances the survival rate of those in need of advanced live support services.
Todd noted that the best approach to meeting national standards would be to add ALS engine companies in three strategic geographic locations around the county that had higher response times. Those locations include the areas served by stations on Tommy Lee Cook Road, Corinth Road and Gordon Road. Adding teams in those ares would diminish the need to pull units from other higher-use areas.
Todd in the presentation a said a six-month survey of EMS calls in the three areas showed that 39 percent of the calls had a response time of eight minutes or greater.
“It is our belief that by implementing ALS engines in these three response areas we could reduce the number of calls to 30, which equals a 94 percent reduction.”
Moore added that, at this time, the Coweta County Fire Department arrives on the scene of medical calls at the same time or before Coweta EMS approximately 70 percent of the time.
“Statistics show that the most effective and economical way to provide the highest quality EMS service is for fire and emergency medical services to work together as part of a collective delivery system,” Moore said.
Commissioners Feb. 15 voted to proceed with the concept planning and training that would be required to add ALS teams to the three locations.
