With three leased ambulances and three others operated by American Medical Response (AMR), the Sumter County Fire Department now provides service outside The Villages.
On Oct. 1, the Villages Fire Department took over ambulance services from AMR, a large national company that provided service countywide. The county department also began a transition to provide service in the rest of the county.
Prompted by long response times last year by AMR ambulances, the change also meant revised procedures for the county dispatch center, which serves both departments. Sumter County also will supervise the Automatic Electronic Defibrillator (AED) network throughout the county.
Sumter County Fire Chief Rob Hanson reported to commissioners at a workshop meeting Tuesday on the first 10 days of providing ambulance service.
Hanson said the department handled 265 medical calls and made 170 transports. While all ambulances were busy at certain times, he said there were no calls when an ambulance was unavailable. The busiest time was about 4 p.m.
The fire chief said ambulance chassis are expected to arrive later this fall and it will take about three months to outfit the vehicles. The current ambulances are leased from AMR.
“Our model is based on availability for the next patient,” Hanson said. “We want to strive for a 90 percent availability rate.”
County Administrator Bradley Arnold said the department is not sending a fire truck on every ambulance call.
“Response time should not be the principal factor,” he said. “What’s the outcome?”
Assigning ambulance services to the two fire departments also meant revised procedures for the emergency dispatch center, said Assistant County Administrator Stephen Kennedy.
“When there are transitions, there are always technical challenges,” he said, but none that affected service.
Under a one-year contract with Lake County, Kennedy said calls can be rerouted in The Villages area to Sumter County with a “one-button transfer.”
Sumter County also is implementing the Pulse Point program for AEDs in areas covered by both fire departments.
Kennedy said the county owns about 150 AEDs including those in county parks and that neighborhood AEDs can be brought into the program. He said AED machines have a four-year life cycle and the annual maintenance cost is about $500 per machine.
Pulse Point is an application that maps the location of AEDs, which must be unlocked so the closest responders can use them.
Kennedy said some advanced AEDs allow the machines to be connected directly to ambulance equipment so they don’t have to be removed when emergency responders arrive.
County Chairman Craig Estep said he supports the program despite the cost.
Arnold said the program will be brought to commissioners for approval once details are worked out.
“We believe the patient benefit is going to outweigh the cost,” he said.
