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=a <br />North Carolina Association of County Commissioners <br />Mailing Address: P. O. Box 1488, Raleigh, NC 27602-1488 3 <br />Street Address: Albert Coates Local Government Center, 215 N. Dawson Street, Raleigh, NC 27603 <br />Telephone: 919-715-2893 • Far 919-733-1065 • Email. ncacc@ncacx.org <br />Home Page Address: http:/Avwwmcacc.org <br />County Program Wins Statewide Award <br />The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners has selected Orange County's <br />Paramedic Initial Response Program as a 1999 Outstanding County Program. It was one of nine <br />entries selected by a team of judges on Dec. 9 for its superior innovation and collaborative efforts <br />in the category of Human Services. <br />There were two other winners in this category and six in the General Government and <br />Public Awareness/Public Participation categories. The Association received more than 85 entries <br />in the three categl ries. The award will be presented at an Orange County Board of <br />Commissioners meeting early next year. <br />This projt changed the concept of emergency medical services from a solely response <br />time basis to a patient outcome service. Instead of the traditional call to 911 bringing the <br />ambulance waili g with lights flashing for transportation to the hospital, Orange County's EMS <br />focuses on appropriate went and transportation for each patient To do this, the county <br />established an Fergency Medical Dispatch that prioritized each call based on symptoms <br />described to the 911 center. Paramedics were taken off ambulances and placed in zone cars. An <br />early responder pi gram of specially trained firefighters with training in basic life support and <br />operation of automatic defibrillators was put into place for acute call s such as someone having <br />chest pains. And finally a transportation plan had to be developed. <br />In the end, the project has allowed paramedics to manage resources better and has <br />allowed EMS to hl andle growth without having to add staff. The sudden cardiac arrest save rate <br />has increased from 6 percent to 20 percent since the implementation of this program. And the <br />system reduces the risk the county is exposed to by dramatically decreasing the times units <br />respond with <br />and sirens.