Facing Criticism, L.A. Fire Will Partner For EMS Runs

In the aftermath of news stories criticizing how the Los Angeles Fire Department responds to medical incidents near the city limits, the city’s fire chief has announced that the agency will move towards a joint response strategy to reduce response times. An analysis last year of EMS incidents by the Los Angeles Times newspaper found that thousands of medical incidents were closer to LA County fire stations, and yet LA City fire units were dispatched to handle them. The newspaper located two cardiac arrest incidents that ended with the patient’s death, which might have been avoided if county fire units had responded. It’s common for city and county jurisdictions to respond to their own incidents, irrespective of jurisdiction boundaries. However, in recent times funding and staffing shortages have forced agencies to either consolidate some operations or cooperate. In this case, fire chief Brian Cummings met with the Times editorial staff and said the department is in the early stages of creating a combined computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system with neighboring agencies. The project could take five years to complete and cost up t o $14 million for each participating agency. He didn’t say when a joint EMS response policy might be implemented. Read the LA Times story about the project here.