In the event of a fire, a few precious seconds could represent the difference between life and death. The importance of responding quickly to emergency calls is something Lawrence firefighters realize, and something they hope to improve upon in 2008.
While most fire departments measure response time using a raw average time, the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire/Medical Department is shifting to a new method of measurement. The new, more precise way of gauging response time is called “fractile response time measurement” and could help the department arrive at emergencies more quickly and achieve international accreditation later this year. Instead of measuring effectiveness by computing a raw average response time for all scenarios, the department has started taking into account the exact locations of emergencies relative to its stations and evaluating its efficiency while taking factors such as distance and traffic into account.
“As part of our improvement process, we’re looking at each piece of our response procedure,” Division Chief Bill Stark said. “We’re specifically looking at three things: the alarm processing time, our turnout time and our travel time.”
The alarm processing time is the amount of time it takes the 911 dispatch center to get in touch with the fire department. The turnout time is the time between the notification of the fire department and when the fire truck leaves the station. The travel time is measured from the time the truck pulls away from the station to when it arrives at the scene of the emergency. The way the fire department measured response time in the past merely clocked the time from 911 call to arrival at the scene. The fractile response time measurement breaks the total time into alarm processing, turnout and travel phases and provides more accurate information than older methods.
The department could improve the most in the turnout phase, Stark said. While the alarm processing period is dependent upon the dispatch center and the travel time can change depending on traffic and the location of the emergency, turnout time rests squarely on the department’s shoulders. Stark said the department could not expect firefighters to man trucks 24 hours per day, but possible changes in fire station design could expedite the department’s average turnout time.
“Traditionally, chiefs put trucks on one end of the building and living quarters on the other,” Stark said. “We’re looking at putting the trucks in the center of the building, closer to everything, so we can get to the trucks and out the door quicker.”
The department hopes to have a complete assessment of its fractile response time finished by November, when it is scheduled to undergo testing by an international fire accreditation service. But whatever immediate steps the department decides to make will be without the help of a new ladder truck.
The department currently has two engines and one ladder truck that exceed the recommended age and wear threshold. In the 2008 budget, the city approved the replacement of the two engines but denied funding for a new ladder truck. Each engine will cost $840,000, which will come entirely from property taxes, according to the Lawrence city budget. The ladder truck would have cost over $1 mil – a cost the city cannot afford at the moment.
“It really extends beyond our control,” Stark said. “We always want our trucks replaced once they are past a certain point, but it all boils down to money and how much the city is willing to spend.”
There are several reasons for the city’s budget shortfall. Pay raises in the department coupled with a loss of grants cut the funding pool a bit, but the biggest drain on the department’s available resources was a reduced tax base, Lawrence Budget Manager Casey Liebst said.
“This year there were no program improvements included in the budget because we’re facing some pretty significant revenue issues,” Leibst said. “We just don’t have the resources we thought we’d have to spend. We haven’t been able to grow on the expenditure side because we’re not growing our revenue fast enough.”
The department’s new-found focus on in-depth measurement of response times is part of its recent decision to apply for accreditation. In order to achieve accreditation, the department must meet specific response time criteria – criteria measured by fractile analysis. If the department achieves accreditation, it could see immediate benefits. Accreditation could help the Lawrence-Douglas County department become more goal-oriented, forward-looking and well-organized, according to Commission on Fire Accreditation International Program Manager Rick Black.
Even before making improvements in anticipation of accreditation, the department has been working efficiently, said Leibst. The city chose to devote funds brought in by property taxes to improving the Lawrence transit system instead of funding the fire department because it received high marks on a recent citizen survey. Leibst said the department brought in “stellar ratings” that encouraged the city to spend its money on more pressing needs.
Stark said the department was pleased with its performance but could always stand to improve response times. Purchasing two new fire engines should provide the building blocks for improvement, and performing an in-depth survey of fractile response times could give the department the information it needs to streamline its performance and snip seconds from its response times.
“We’re continuing to study and improve on each piece of information,” Stark said. “Ultimately we want to bring our percentage up and get to 9 of 10 cases in time. We’ll never get to 100 percent – that’s impossible in our business – but we’d like to lower our times.”