final report: fire department staffing study

Town of Amherst, MA

October 2, 2017

FINAL REPORT: FIRE DEPARTMENT STAFFING STUDY

• Review 5 years of operations.

• Evaluate approaches to staffing.

• Career vs. other approaches.

• Call / Student staffing.

• Paramedic mix / Shift staffing

• Contracts for EMS

• Operational Improvements

Our Understanding of the Project

• Current system is predicated on several key factors:

– In-town and outside-of-town service delivery.

– Seasonal and day of week impacts due to colleges

– Extended transport times to the hospital due to distance and road network.

– Availability of Call and Student force personnel.

• Analysis of data shows that while there are response time differences, they are not significant.

• Analysis also shows that response times in the Town when the first call is outside the Town are not significantly increased due to staffing and deployment.

Service Delivery

• Myth: growth in workload is due to the contract EMS towns.

• Myth: university students generate disproportionate levels of workload.

• Myth: overtime can be used to address staffing issues forever.

• Myth: the current system is sustainable without changes.

Service Delivery Myths

Growth in Call Volume Comes from Amherst Itself

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Call Volume Is Influenced by Seasonality

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Distribution of Calls for Service (All Call Types) / FY12-FY16 Calls by Town by Month

AMH HAD LEV PEL

SHU Linear (AMH) Linear (HAD)

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Call Volume Is Influenced by Hour / Day

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Distribution of Calls by Hour of Day FY12-FY16 All Calls Handled by the AFD

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Distribution of Calls by Day of Week / FY12-FY16 All Calls Handled by the AFD

Average Response times INSIDE Amherst by day of week:

Average Response times OUTSIDE Amherst by day of week:

Service Delivery by Day of Week Shows Little Variance


5:38 5:41 5:50 5:36 5:52 5:34 5:58


9:6 8:27 8:33 8:53 8:39 8:59 8:43

Average Response times INSIDE Amherst by month:

Average Response times OUTSIDE Amherst by month:

Service Delivery by Month Shows Little Variance

July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June

5:48 5:38 5:56 5:34 6:06 5:24 5:32 6:10 5:33 5:36 5:30 5:55

July Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec. Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June

8:39 9:20 8:57 8:48 8:15 8:08 8:58 8:38 8:15 9:16 8:42 9:32

While Response Times Are Good There Are Challenges

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Average Drive Times to and From Hospital (by Fiscal Year) for all EMS Calls + Transport

Travel to Hospital Travel From Hospital

Linear (Travel to Hospital) Linear (Travel From Hospital)

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Call Force Annual Hours (2005-2015)

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Call Backs Are a Declining Source for Coverage

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Call Backs Receiving a Full Response Percent of Calls (2011-2016)

% Call Back With Full Response Linear (% Call Back With Full Response)

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Call Backs Receiving Any Response Percent of Calls (2011-2016)

% Call Back With Any Response Linear (% Call Back With Any Response)

Concurrency Is Driven by Calls and by Drive Times

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Concurrent Calls (All Types) 2011-2016 Dispatch vs. Cleared By Time of Day

• Town of Amherst has several existing contracts to provide EMS services to neighboring towns.

• Contracts for service include an annual payment to Amherst.

• This year will generate more than $230,000. Changes in Hadley could impact the Town of Amherst at least in the short term.

• Does not specify who keeps ambulance fees recovered – this should be clarified.

• Trade off to be considered – extra revenue vs. staffing (is the Town staffing extra units). Amherst needs the staff to handle its workload – so the contract EMS program makes sense.

Contracts for Service With Other Towns

• The Student and Call Forces augment the full-time staff. Cannot provide the breadth of service delivered by career personnel.

• Increase expectations for call-back response.

• Implement pilot program for peak staffing of an additional ambulance.– Year One: Start with 2 firefighter / paramedics on 5-day, 8-hour shift.– Alternate Year One: 4 firefighter / paramedics on a 7-day, 12-hour shift.– Year Two: Expand to 4 firefighter / paramedics on a 7-day, 12-hour shift.– Tests: Have call backs been reduced? Have call back response improved?

• Changes in any of the key elements, and / or continued growth will impact ultimate staffing solutions and will require reexamination.

Recommendations

final report: fire department staffing study

Documents