Report: EMS averages 7.4 minute response times

Feb. 14—LENOIR — During the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Feb. 13, Emergency Services Chief Dino DiBernardi presented the Caldwell County Emergency Services 2022 annual report to the board.

"This has been a great learning experience and a great opportunity to brag on the staff, but also to show the work that has been done," said DiBernardi.

Within the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) division, in 2022, there were 19,694 dispatched calls, 25,764 total responses, and 4,151 stand-by calls, which designates the times an ambulance is transferred from one district to another to remain in service for that district to be covered.

"That greatly impacts what I consider one of our benchmarks," DiBernardi said. "The benchmark for national response time overall is 8 minutes. We're maintaining at 7.4 minutes; that is much greater than a lot of what we would be considered as a rural county. We're hitting that benchmark and exceeding it."

DiBernardi said he is very proud of the cardiac arrest survival rate of 14% in Caldwell County last year. He explained that nationally, the chance of surviving sudden cardiac arrest is 9.1%.

There were 813 community paramedic responses in 2022, which includes everything from vaccinations and home-bound tests to community paramedic follow-ups to lift assistance for falls and injuries or blood pressure checks.

The opioid response and treatment program RESTART (Recognize, Educate, Stabilize, Transform, Accelerate, Rehabilitate and Trust) completed 93 scene calls, 278 follow-ups, and 39 referrals to an in-patient, clinical setting where Emergency Services provided transportation.

"All of this is done through the use of our substance use disorder grant that we obtained a year and half ago and is now being continued through the opioid settlement funds," DiBernardi said.

One key metric that DiBernardi noted has become a challenge is an ED bed delay, which is when patients at the hospital are held up in the ER due to a lack of beds.

"We're averaging about 32.41 minutes per call at the hospital. That number is not that bad," he said. "We're actually very proud of that ... The challenge becomes when you get the long ED waits. The longest wait that we did in the calendar year 2022 was 147.4 minutes. That is, for us, unacceptable for multiple reasons, but it does tie up units that could be used in the field. We're working with administration to find ways to curb that. We have some internal methods that we use, and then there are obviously some external ones."

Within the county's Fire Division, there were 629 inspections conducted in 2022, as well as 10 special permits which can include blasting permits, fireworks, and more. There were also 48 fire investigations and 193 emergency responses throughout the county.

Caldwell County fire departments also take a very active role in offering fire prevention activities, especially the popular smoke trailer.

"Fire departments are the front line for fire prevention," said DiBernardi. "Through that, we've done 33 activities and reached over 840 children, specifically with the smoke trailer."

DiBernardi added that the fire departments do a phenomenal job with ensuring that every community member has a fully functioning smoke alarm in their home.

"We do smoke alarm canvases very regularly, and the fire departments are instrumental in that," he said. "With the ones we installed, there were two reported saved ... Those smoke alarms that alerted the family both happened to be at night, it awoke them, and they were able to get out with their families."

In 2022, seven people were reported missing. There were 16 Hazmat incidents and three law-enforcement related incidents, which can mean everything from a high-risk warrant to officer-involved shooting. Twenty-nine classes or exercises were provided to the county. There were 198 decontaminations, many of which are directly related to COVID-19 response. There have been 37 FEMA COVID projects already submitted and paid out, with three additional projects still pending for a total of $1 million being paid back to the county. Of that, 45.25% went to overtime reimbursement, 35.88% went to equipment costs, and 18.87% for project management.

With the help of the county's public information and IT offices, Emergency Services was able to seamlessly deploy CivicReady to the public, a mass notification system that replaced CodeRed.

"Does that mean we don't use CodeRed?" asked Commissioner Donnie Potter.

"That's correct," DiBernardi replied. "It transitioned over to CivicReady. It was a seamless integration, they were able to bring over all of that data ... it was not a very large number who were signed up for [CodeRed], so we're really hopeful that the general public signs up for CivicReady."

The Communications Division added quite a few responsibilities last year and had 37,837 E-911 calls, 89,136 administrative line calls (or anyone calling 1424 or the other numbers that then get transferred), 19,694 EMS calls, 7,065 county fire calls. Additionally, the city of Lenoir Fire Department received 2,904 calls, and law enforcement received 45,147 calls. Probation and Parole Communications received 1,664, N.C. State Highway Patrol received 355, and a total of 3,483 calls were received from various departments such as Animal Control and Enforcement and NCDOT Water Department.

The Safety Division is housed out of the Emergency Services department but is a function of county administration.

In 2022, there were 42 workplace incidents (28 of which included motor vehicle accidents), 12 reportable incidents, and 15 online training courses which very impressively accounted for 9,240 contact hours for Caldwell County government employees. The Safety Division also completed 45 scene calls and 74 decontaminations.

Lastly, DiBernardi noted a number of highlights and successes in the department since last year, including, but not limited to, neonate and pediatric advancements; obstetrics equipment and capabilities increased; Hamilton T-1 ventilators; emotional support K-9's; and continued fleet replacement.

He also set several goals for the department for 2023, including sustaining focus on programs impacting vulnerable populations; enhancing quality improvement/quality assurance programs; further engaging local, state and regional partners; retention and recruitment initiatives; and mental and behavioral health initiatives.

"A lot things were realized this year, even in the face of a continued pandemic, which thankfully is officially over in May," he said. "There were a lot of successes, and I can't brag on the staff enough. These were their successes. We have worked more closely with each of the other departments in the county than ever. The pandemic really brought that to light, but the a collaboration between the different departments within Caldwell County government has been phenomenal."