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MedStar provides emergency and nonemergency ambulance service in Blue Mound, Burleson, Edgecliff Village, Forest Hill, Fort Worth, Haltom City, Haslet, Lakeside, Lake Worth, River Oaks, Saginaw, Sansom Park, Westover Hills, Westworth Village and White Settlement.
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FORT WORTH -- The people taking 911 calls for MedStar ambulances look more like weather forecasters these days.
While those people, known as controllers, answer calls, they also are reading a big digital wall map on a monitor that shows in rainbow colors which of MedStar's areas have the highest volume of calls so controllers can send the closest ambulance to the latest call faster.MedStar recently unveiled the high-tech interactive map that graphically shows anticipated call volumes. That way controllers can position ambulances for the best response times and, ultimately, patient care.The Mobile Area Routing and Vehicle Location Information System, or MARVLIS, is relatively new technology developed by Bradshaw Consulting of South Carolina. The computer uses real-time analysis and historical data to predict where calls will come from. It is also constantly storing information to analyze for future callsMedStar officials said only a few emergency services agencies are using the system worldwide, and they hope that it will help them achieve their goal of taking nine minutes or less for an ambulance to reach Priority 1 calls and to maintain service in the 90th percentile or better, said Lara Kohl, public information officer for MedStar."We understand that isn't going to happen all the time, but our goal is 90 percent," she said.PrioritiesThe reference to the 90th percentile means that if ambulances respond to 100 Priority 1 calls, the units are there in nine minutes or less for 90 of the calls, Kohl explained.MedStar's priority levels are determined by the information given to the controllers answering the phones:Priority 1 is life-threatening injuries, such as cardiac arrest, uncontrollable bleeding and breathing problems. The response goal is nine minutes or less.Priority 2 calls are urgent but not life-threatening, such as limb-threatening situations, falls and allergic reactions. Goal is 11 minutes or less.Priority 3 calls are nonemergencies such as twisted ankles. The goal is 15 minutes or less.MedStar also has Priority 4 and Priority 5 calls, which are scheduled transfers between facilities, such as from a hospital to a nursing home. Those calls have a 15-minute-or-less response goal, according to MedStar data.Bob Strickland, a deployment manager who has been with MedStar for 30 years, said he hopes that with the new system, ambulance crews can average 7.5 minutes for a call.And, he said, "I'd like to see us have 95 percent coverage."MedStar serves 860,000 residents in 15 municipalities spread over 421 square miles of Tarrant County. Its ambulances responded to 97,223 calls in 2009.MedStar has 47 ambulances, but not all are in service every day. The new deployment monitor helps determine how many will be needed at any time each day, Kohl said.Grabbing the dataThe company has always collected information about calls for planning purposes, Strickland said. In fact, he used to compile such data and input into a computer himself. So he thinks the fact that the software does it automatically is a definite plus, he said.
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