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Health & Fitness

12/22/12

One year ago on 12/22/12, a call was received by CMED regarding an overdose at 1:22. It took CMED 0:01:07, slightly more than one minute to 1:23, to notify Post 53. Two Post 53 units, units 316 and 312, responded and reached the scene at 1:28 and 1:31 respectively. The response times were 0:05:05 and 0:08:27 respectively without counting the time to dispatch. Including the time to dispatch, the Post 53 response times were 0:06:12 and 0:09:34. SEMS unit 202, which I believe is in Glenbrook, was dispatched at 1:25, two minutes after Post was dispatched and 0:03:07 minutes after CMED received the call. It took the SEMS unit 202 0:12:32 minutes after dispatch to arrive on scene at 1:38 and 15 minutes from the time the call was initially received by CMED. You should come away with the following: the paramedic response time in this case was unacceptable by any standard, response times do not include the time it takes to dispatch nor does it include the time it takes for Darien PD to switch the call to CMED. The time to dispatch can be significant. The times the calls are received are rounded to the nearest minute as are the times of dispatch and arrival. Response times are not rounded. These data are from CMED. Names and addresses are not shown to protect client confidentiality. These data are public information. I obtained these data as a result of a FOI request to Ron Hammer, Director of Post 53. It took six months to obtain these data. Finally, Jayme Stevenson gave me the data she had obtained from CMED. If I had not been given the data, Hammer would have had to testify at a FOI hearing in Hartford. For those of you who have followed this issue closely, you will understand the potential implications of these data. For the others, stay tuned. Walter Casey.








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