Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council
Regular Meeting of November 3, 2022
Title
LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE AND AMBULANCE MONTHLY
REPORT FOR SEPTEMBER 2022
(Deputy City Manager Angela Crespi)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends City Council receive and file the September 2022 Fire and Ambulance monthly report.
Body
Executive Summary:
City departments generate monthly reports to provide a snapshot of activities performed each month. Prior to the transition of fire and ambulance transport services to the County of Los Angeles, the Hermosa Beach Fire Department developed monthly response reports. After the transition, the monthly report was updated to include Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) and McCormick Ambulance information and continues to be uploaded to the website. The following report provides details regarding services provided for the month of September 2022.
Background:
At the February 11, 2020 Council meeting, City Council requested monthly reports be placed onto the City Council agenda under consent calendar. On the July 14, 2020 City Council agenda, the monthly reports began to appear. The enclosed report reflects the services for September 2022.
Past Board, Commission and Council Actions
|
Meeting Date |
Description |
|
February 11, 2020 (Regular Meeting) |
City Council requested monthly reports be placed onto the City Council agenda under consent calendar. |
|
July 14, 2020 (Regular Meeting) |
Monthly reports began on City Council consent agenda. |
Discussion:
The September 2022 monthly report provides an overview of services provided by LACoFD and McCormick Ambulance (Attachment 1: September 2022 LACoFD and McCormick Ambulance Monthly Report).
Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD)
LACoFD and McCormick Ambulance work together to provide emergency medical services (EMS) to the Hermosa Beach community. LACoFD has two apparatus stationed at Station 100 including: one assessment engine (Engine 100) staffed with a Fire Captain, a Fire Engineer and a Firefighter Paramedic; and a paramedic squad (Squad 100) staffed with two Firefighter Paramedics. The paramedic squad (Squad 100) only responds to calls for service exclusively within the City of Hermosa Beach. It does not provide mutual aid, thereby remaining available for calls within Hermosa Beach.
Each of the LACoFD apparatus has the capability of providing basic emergency medical care known as Basic Life Support (BLS) to medical patients. In addition, the paramedic squad has advanced equipment including medications and responds from within the City to address Advanced Life Support (ALS) calls, such as a stroke or heart attack.
McCormick Ambulance is one of the emergency medical transport companies within Los Angeles County. LACoFD does not conduct patient transport; therefore, unincorporated areas are included in the fire department transport contracts with various providers. Contract cities are responsible for negotiating and contracting with a medical transport provider for their community. Within the South Bay, many of the cities have contracted with McCormick Ambulance to conduct emergency medical transportation including the City of Hermosa Beach.
When LACoFD is dispatched, McCormick Ambulance may also be dispatched as the City’s emergency medical transportation provider. LACoFD provides life-saving medical care on scene and continues ALS level care as the patient is transported to a local hospital. In the case of a BLS level call, monitoring and care are safely provided by one of the two Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) assigned to the responding ambulance.
LACoFD follows industry standards developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), which outlines call transfer times and total response times. The NFPA standard for call transfer time is that each call will be answered within 60 seconds 90 percent of the time. Additionally, responding units are to be enroute within 60 seconds to EMS related calls and 80 seconds for structure fire calls. NFPA further stipulates that for EMS calls, responding units must arrive on scene within 8 minutes and 59 seconds 90 percent of the time.
The September 2022 call transfer report provided by LACoFD indicates that there were a total of five calls with a transfer time longer than the NFPA standard. The calls received during periods of increased call volume in the dispatch center.
Table 1 below provides the response details for the five incidents in Hermosa Beach.
Table 1: NFPA Standard Exceedance-Response Details
|
Date |
Call Type |
Call Transfer Time |
Length of Transfer |
LACoFD Dispatch Time |
On Scene Time |
Length of Arrival |
Total Response Time |
|
September 3 |
Sick ALS |
9:37 |
159 seconds |
09:41 |
13:03 |
4 minutes |
6 minutes 39 seconds |
|
September 10 |
Sick ALS |
8:38 |
84 seconds |
08:48 |
17:01 |
9 minutes |
10 minutes 24 seconds |
|
September 23 |
Injury BLS |
23:47 |
90 seconds |
23:47 |
23:51 |
4 minutes |
5 minutes 30 seconds |
|
September 23 |
Injury ALS |
9:05 |
67 seconds |
9:07 |
9:10 |
3 minutes |
4 minutes 7 seconds |
|
September 27 |
Sick ALS |
17:44 |
151 seconds |
17:46 |
17:49 |
3 minutes |
5 minutes 31 seconds |
Table definitions
• Call Transfer Time: The exact time when the call was transferred from South Bay Regional Public Communications Authority also known as Regional Communications Center (RCC).
• Length of Transfer: The length of time that it took from LACoFD dispatch center to answer the call from RCC.
• LACoFD Dispatch Time: The time in which appropriate fire apparatus were dispatched to the incident.
• On Scene Time: The time in which the dispatched units arrived at the incident location.
• Length of Arrival: The time between when the unit was dispatched and arrived on scene.
• Total Response Time: The total combined time between the call transfer time and the length of time arriving units on scene.
McCormick Ambulance
McCormick Ambulances are staffed by two EMT’s who can provide and transport BLS patients independently and, with the support of LACoFD paramedics riding in the ambulance, can also transport ALS patients.
In September 2022, McCormick Ambulance responded to 71 calls for services within the City of Hermosa Beach. The September 2022 report indicated that 22 calls resulted in delayed Code 3 responses, which is five less than what was reported in the August 2022 report. There were three delayed Code 2 responses in September 2022, which is the same amount of delayed Code 2 calls from August 2022. A Code 3 response is one where the responding emergency units are driving with lights and sirens to a presumed life-threatening emergency, which is typically classified as an ALS call. According to the McCormick Ambulance contract, “response time must not exceed eight (8) minutes, fifty-nine (59) seconds” for a Code 3 incident. A Code 2 response is one where the responding emergency units are driving with lights and sirens to an emergency classified as a basic life support or BLS call.
Staff reviewed the September 2022 McCormick Ambulance monthly report. The following outlines the reasons for the delayed responses:
• Multiple Calls: (12) The dispatch center received multiple calls at the same time;
• Distance: (7) Based on the location the ambulance begins the response to the City, it could impact the response time. The City contract does not have a unit permanently stationed within Hermosa Beach; therefore, the responding ambulance often begins the response outside of the City;
• Crew Error: (1) The crew responded to the wrong address; and
• APOT: (5) Ambulance Patient Offload Time happens when there are 3 or more ambulances at a hospital waiting at least 30 minutes to transfer care of the patient from the ambulance crew to the hospital for continuation of care.
McCormick Ambulance demonstrates a continuous effort to detect and correct service level performance deficiencies by identifying the reason for delayed response times, issuance of personnel performance notices when mandatory response requirements are not met, and the release of personnel upon continued performance issues. McCormick Ambulance also provides training and continuing education to staff to improve skills and service delivery.
Although the emergency medical transport units were delayed in arriving on scene within the allowable timeframe for 25 calls in September 2022, patients were provided timely life-saving emergency medical care on scene by Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedics. When LACoFD arrives on scene, it takes paramedics 5 to 10 minutes to conduct the required treatment protocols prior to commencing transport with McCormick Ambulance. During the patient treatment phase, the requested ambulance is typically on scene waiting for the paramedics to complete their treatment protocols even if the ambulance response is delayed. Los Angeles County Fire Department and McCormick Ambulance are committed to providing excellent emergency medical care, customer service, and response to the residents and visitors of Hermosa Beach.
General Plan Consistency:
This report and associated recommendation have been evaluated for their consistency with the City’s General Plan. Relevant Policies are listed below:
Safety Element
Goal 5. High quality police and fire protection services provided to residents and visitors.
Policy:
• 5.2 High level of response. Achieve optimal utilization of allocated public safety resources and provide desired levels of response, staffing, and protection within the community.
Fiscal Impact:
Fire and ambulance services are contracted and accounted for during the annual budget process.
Attachments:
1. Fire and Ambulance Monthly Report-September 2022
Respectfully Submitted by: Sara Russo, Senior Management Analyst
Concur: Angela Crespi, Deputy City Manager
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director
Approved: Suja Lowenthal, City Manager