Angie

I live in Genesee County, MI and we also have a multi-company system. "OUR" County commissioners have consulted with a company and did a study. This consultant said that we need to completely change our system to one county-wide company. Our system works. we do have issues but we all work we together. We could have an MVA with 2 or 3 different companies on seen. Most of our companies are BLS with some ALS we also have County Sheriff deputy paramedics in E units. Our problem is dispatching. Dispatch has to call by phone starting with the closest company in the area and work their way out until they find an available rig. It's not our response times that's the problem, it's the time that it takes to find a rig. But they have told the public in the paper that our response times are awful (NOT TRUE!) When they reported it to the public they added tier1,2, and 3 calls together and average them out. Of course our response times will look bad that way! It was proposed that we all get one radio system and GPS and that should fix the problem, but they don't want to hear it. Somebody is rubbing their greedy little paws together salivating over the money that funds the GCSD Echos. So, this is what made me decide to study this topic. Its been so difficult finding the information that I need that I wished I'd chosen sex in Disney cartoons instead!! It would have been WAY easier!

I'm doing a research paper for my Socy class comparing ambulance response times in counties with one county-wide service to counties with multiple companies in service. it seems the only response averages I can find are for companies that messed up and it's reported in an article. The counties that I need info for are: Plymouth County, MA Hampden County, MA Guilford County, NC Arapahoe County, CO Washington County, OR Chester County, PA (and these are just a start. I don't know yet what type of services these counties have, they just fit the demographic size and population parameters I have set.) Any help that could be offered would be greatly appreciated. I've tried darned near every combination of ambulance response times, EMS, Jems, everything I can think of....I think my hair is falling out!!!