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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 02-01-2000 - 6a2z ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: February 1, 2000 Action Agenda Item No. _ 4 - a Letter ATTACHMENT(; NCACC Notific Press Release SUBJECT: of Outstanding County Program Award - Paramedic Initial ram DEPARTMENT: I County Manager nse P TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-0501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To (NCACC) 1999 OL program. BACKGROUND: implemented a proc are initially respond Response Vehicle ( generally made by i transport of any pat effectiveness, main staff resources as c This program has receive one of its will attend this BC staff. FINANCIAL IMP RECOMMENDA recognize the eft PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No INFORMATION CONTACT: Rod Visser, ext 2300 receive the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners I County Program Award for the Paramedic Initial Response Emergency Management Director Nick Waters and his staff designed and ram of Emergency Medical Service delivery under which all calls for EMS ad to by a paramedic in a fully-equipped sedan, referred to as an Initial IRV). Based on the paramedic's assessment at the scene, a decision is he paramedic as to whether an ambulance also needs to be dispatched for ents needing hospital treatment. The program has improved program aining overall patient outcomes while minimizing the need to add additional all load has continued to increase. n selected by the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners to standing County Program Awards for 1999. A representative of NCACC meeting to formally present the award to County Commissioners and None. 4(S): The Manager recommends that the Board accept the award and of Nick Waters and his staff in designing and implementing this program. To: John Link, Orange County Manager From: Gayle Butzgy, NCACC Director of Communications Date: December 9, 1999 The judges for the Outstanding County Program Awards met today and selected the "Paramedic Initial Response Program" by Orange County as an award winner in the Human Services category. Congratulations to the county and all those who worked on this submission. I called Mr. Nick Waters, who submitted the entry, but I would appreciate it if you could send him a copy of this letter as well. There are a number of actions we take to publicize the winners. We will summarize the winning programs in the January or February issue of CountyLines and place them on our NCACC website. By Monday, Dec. 22, we will fax you a news release that you can distribute to the local media. Most importantly, we will present this award to the county at one of your regular board meeting. I will contact you after the first of the year to determine a date that would be best for you and what time we should plan to be there. We hope one of our officers or board members can join us for the presentation. We would invite the news media to attend these presentations and/or do a story about the winning program. In the meantime, please contact me if you have any questions. %a a.va,Ralvaaa„ vV"al a., i a VSa Rill 4-2, VV Ra %& =a North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Mailing Address: P. O. Box 1488, Raleigh, NC 27602-1488 3 Street Address: Albert Coates Local Government Center, 215 N. Dawson Street, Raleigh, NC 27603 Telephone: 919-715-2893 • Far 919-733-1065 • Email. ncacc@ncacx.org Home Page Address: http:/Avwwmcacc.org County Program Wins Statewide Award The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners has selected Orange County's Paramedic Initial Response Program as a 1999 Outstanding County Program. It was one of nine entries selected by a team of judges on Dec. 9 for its superior innovation and collaborative efforts in the category of Human Services. There were two other winners in this category and six in the General Government and Public Awareness/Public Participation categories. The Association received more than 85 entries in the three categl ries. The award will be presented at an Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting early next year. This projt changed the concept of emergency medical services from a solely response time basis to a patient outcome service. Instead of the traditional call to 911 bringing the ambulance waili g with lights flashing for transportation to the hospital, Orange County's EMS focuses on appropriate went and transportation for each patient To do this, the county established an Fergency Medical Dispatch that prioritized each call based on symptoms described to the 911 center. Paramedics were taken off ambulances and placed in zone cars. An early responder pi gram of specially trained firefighters with training in basic life support and operation of automatic defibrillators was put into place for acute call s such as someone having chest pains. And finally a transportation plan had to be developed. In the end, the project has allowed paramedics to manage resources better and has allowed EMS to hl andle growth without having to add staff. The sudden cardiac arrest save rate has increased from 6 percent to 20 percent since the implementation of this program. And the system reduces the risk the county is exposed to by dramatically decreasing the times units respond with and sirens. 4 The judges for the Outstanding County Program Awards said, "The project is innovative and can be easily replicated. It is a cost-effective method of service delivery without impacting the quality of service in potentially life-threatening situations." For more information on this outstanding program, contact Nck Waters in Orange County at 919-968-2050.