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5 <br /> 3. Update on the County's Emergency Response Time and Co-Location Efforts <br /> Background <br /> In FY 2019-20 (July 1, 2019 to January 17, 2020), Orange County Emergency Medical <br /> Services (EMS) has responded to 9,033 calls, with a projected outlook for the year of <br /> 16,500 calls. During this period, approximately 208 times, the County has needed to <br /> request assistance from surrounding counties (Durham, Alamance, Chatham, Caswell <br /> and Person) to respond to calls when no EMS units were available. With the addition of <br /> the UNC-Hillsborough Emergency Department (ED), EMS has been able to reduce the <br /> discharge time for patients and report available for service. This does not affect the call <br /> volume; however, it does reduce the length of time that a unit is out of service, thus <br /> reducing the time that County partners must remain on standby to respond into Orange <br /> County for calls. <br /> Issue 1: UNC-Hillsborough Hospital and the relationship to EMS response times <br /> Traditionally, Orange County EMS transported all of patients to UNC-Chapel Hill, <br /> Duke/Durham Regional and/or Alamance Regional. With the new UNC-Hillsborough <br /> location opening in 2015, transports to Duke have dramatically decreased, which in turn <br /> clears units quicker to return for service. <br /> UNC Hillsborough (UNC-H) is typically served by Medic 1 (Revere Road, Hillsborough), <br /> Medic 4 (Mt. Willing Road, Efland), Medic 5 (St. Mary's Road, Hillsborough), and Medic 7 <br /> (NC 86 South — across from Camp New Hope, Chapel Hill). Patients are being <br /> transported to UNC-H by ambulance from northern Chapel Hill and northern Orange <br /> County. In 2019 Orange County EMS transported 1,254 patients to UNC-H. The average <br /> turn around time of an ambulance transporting to UNC-H was 26 minutes 29 seconds, in <br /> stark contrast to the 37 minute 53 second average turn around time for ambulances <br /> transporting to Duke University Medical Center. While impossible to analyze fully, this <br /> quicker turn around time, accompanied by the shorter transport time to UNC-H, allows <br /> ambulances to clear up faster from each call. Response time is dependent on the <br /> number of available ambulances and the proximity to the requested response. The <br /> opening of UNC-H also allowed many of the northern Orange County patients, who would <br /> have otherwise been taken to Duke or UNC Main Campus in Chapel Hill, to be <br /> transported to a closer hospital with a shorter turn around time. <br /> Background <br /> Orange County EMS is a single EMS district which delivers response to the entire County <br /> encompassing approximately 398 square miles to include the three municipalities. The <br /> highest percentage of EMS calls occur within and proximate to Chapel Hill, followed by <br /> Hillsborough and then Carrboro. The Hillsborough responses have increased steadily <br /> due to the addition of multiple medical and nursing facilities. EMS currently staffs six (6) <br /> 24-hour stations, with four (4) of those stations co-locating, and two (2) 12-hour stations, <br /> with both of those stations co-locating. It is important to note that with the exception of <br /> the Chapel Hill Fire Station in Glen Lennox, also known as EMS Station 3, none of the <br /> current facilities were originally built or intended to accommodate EMS operations, <br /> including the stand-along stations that house two of the northern stations. Co-locations <br />