ACTION REQUESTED:
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Request from the City Manager, Fire Chief and Manager of Emergency Communications for the following:
A. APPROVE and Enter into a Sole Source CONTRACT with FITCH & ASSOCIATES to Perform a DISPATCH & FIRE/EMS OPERATIONAL ASSESSMENT, in an Amount not-to-exceed $50,995.00, and
B. ADOPT an ORDINANCE Amending the City of Peoria 2018-2019 BIENNIAL BUDGET Relating to the General Fund Recognizing the Receipt of $25,498.00 from OSF Hospital and Unity Point Methodist and the Corresponding Expenditure Increase of $25,498.00.
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BACKGROUND: During the 2018-2019 budget discussions, the City Council spent several meetings discussing the resources that the City was allocating to fire and EMS calls. In the first budget report back to the City Council, the following recommendation was made:
The City should work with the PAEMS Medical Director and AMT to determine the efficacy of dispatching the Fire Department of some of the least severe categories. Some calls may not necessitate the response time that a more severe call warrants. A review of this could reduce the risk exposure that the City faces from liability and worker’s compensation if a firefighter were injured on a call, or in route to a call.
The City Manager had the opportunity to discuss the challenges of dispatch with Fitch and Associates, a national consulting firm with extensive experience in analyzing dispatch center performance and Fire/ EMS operations. Succinctly, the proposal attempts to answer two specific questions:
Are the right resources going to the right calls?
Are all the resources that are sent appropriate?
In order to answer these questions Fitch will perform two separate but linked analyses:
1) Dispatch review of call taking to understand how the medical priority dispatch product is being utilized, if it is categorizing and prioritizing calls optimally and how the current practice compares to best practice.
2) Fire/EMS deployment operational assessment in order to determine how the fire program compares to best practice. What the fire role should be in EMS, and if the fire response is adequate or can it be modified to be more efficient and effective.
In addition, Fitch will explore the service role of AMT, reviewing and addressing what are the response time metrics that should be assigned to transport. Finally, they will examine how the system of first response meshes with the transport role of AMT.
Fitch will begin by determining what is possible to do to improve categorization and prioritization of response, then determine the response package (with input from the Project Medical Director, Fire Command and AMT staff, and then examine response times to adjust the severity of the call with the right resource assignment and the right response time for each agency.
The Fire Department is currently engaged in a standard of cover analysis, where possible Fitch will use what has been done. Some work will need to be redone since this engagement changes the input from current call intake to best practice categorization and prioritization.
The engagement will last 5 months, and require 4 site visits to complete.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The price of the engagement is $43,995, discounted by $6,000 for the current standard of cover analysis being performed by the Fire Department. Fitch has estimated an additional $7,000 of travel and miscellaneous expenses for the project. OSF Hospital and Unity Point Methodist have each agreed to cover 25% of the cost. The city would be responsible for the remaining 50% to complete the study.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS: The appropriate level of Fire and EMS response has an impact on services delivered to the public and how financially sound the City can remain.
IMPACT IF APPROVED: If approved the City will have a better understanding of how our resource deployment compares to nationwide best practices. The City could then use that information to optimize resource deployment to protect the public safety while doing so in a fiscally responsible manner. With alternatives for deployment, organization and fiscal strategies, the Council will have the ability to weigh the costs and benefits of our existing model and any changes to that model.
IMPACT IF DENIED: If the project is not undertaken, the City would not have alternatives that compare to nationwide best practices, particularly with dispatch. The standards of cover analysis being undertaken as part of the accreditation process would be the only separate analysis undertaken.
ALTERNATIVES: The City could send staff away to be trained on this type of analysis, but with fixed resources, any other work being performed by that staff would have to be undertaken by others. The City could forego the study, which would not provide the analysis of the current dispatch operations.
EEO CERTIFICATION NUMBER: Pending
WHICH OF THE GOALS IDENTIFIED IN THE COUNCIL’S 2017 - 2032 STRATEGIC PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION ADVANCE?
1. Financially Sound City
2. Safe Peoria
WHICH CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S) FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION IMPLEMENT?
1. Have an efficient government.
2. Keep taxes and fees competitive.
DEPARTMENT: City Manager's Office