09-19-11 Draft Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION— SEPTEMBER 19, 2011 2 Brian LaCroix, President Allina Medical Transportation (AMT) reviewed the history of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) which arose from lessons learned from military experience . and the need to address problems of sudden cardiac arrest and trauma. He stated that EMS today has one foot in healthcare and one in public safety. EMS in Minnesota is governed by the EMS Regulatory Board which certifies individuals, licensed agencies, and manages fiscal programs. He added there are 309 EMS services in Minnesota. Mr. LaCroix explained that Allina Medical Transportation serves over 100 Minnesota communities with 72,000 ambulance responses annually, approximately 198 responses every day, and more than 440 employees. Allina Medical Transportation is one of Minnesota's largest EMS providers. One million Minnesotans live in AMT's primary service area. He pointed out that AMT has had a base in Arden Hills for 20 years and will soon be moving from the Dunlap Street location to Mounds View. He stressed that the physical location of their ambulance garage does not impact how they perform because they use a fluid deployment system. Kevin Miller, Director of Operations, Allina Medical Transportation, introduced Mark Dascalos and Mike Pintar who are the managers for the north region. He explained that their ambulances are not placed in one location but are placed based on the day of the week and the hour of the day. There could be as many as 20 ambulances placed at the height of the day based on special events. Currently out of the north metro location, he explained there are approximately 30 ambulances which check into their base, load medications, and then head out to various locations and those locations change as needs change. He then reviewed a chart reflecting the history of responses in the City of Arden Hills which showed an average response time of 6.1 minutes for 2010. He also reviewed a chart reflecting a total of 501 patients transported in Arden Hills in 2010 and the • patient destinations, including Health East, Hennepin County Medical Center, Fairview, Regions Hospital, and Allina. He stressed that AMT takes patients where they want to go. He added that there are some exceptions, such as when the hospital a patient wants to go to does not treat the specific medical emergency of that patient. To address concerns about why the police, fire and AMT all respond to emergencies, he explained that when a call comes into their center they're able to talk with the patient and determine the acuity of their needs all of which is overseen by medical direction and which makes it possible to customize the response by fire and police personnel. Not all communities have fire and police respond as well as the AMT personnel responds. Brian LaCroix commented that the decision whether or not to have fire and police as first responders is a community decision. He explained that the initial 911 call goes into the Ramsey County dispatch and they decide where to direct that call. If it's an EMS call, the County will decide, based on the arrangements with the municipality, who they want to send as first responders and at the same time that is happening they hand the call off to the Allina center at which time an ambulance is dispatched. Kevin Miller explained that AMT follows a process called zero response time; having someone on the phone with a patient or family member helping them through the medical crisis while the ambulance is in movement. Mayor Grant questioned if the response time reflected in the chart is an average response time. •