Roving ambulance launches in Fox Valley

GRAND CHUTE - The number of emergency situations in Grand Chute hasn't necessarily gone up, but more people in the community are likely crossing paths with an ambulance.

For the past week, Gold Cross, which provides ambulance service throughout Outagamie, Winnebago and Calumet counties, has had a 24 hour roving ambulance to get a head start on an emergency.

“We're putting them in designed locations throughout Grand Chute where the likelihood of another call, or the probability of the call is great,” said Mark Fredrickson, the operations director for Gold Cross. “The reason we're doing this is that seconds count in an emergency.”

Fredrickson says at a fixed location, it typically takes a paramedic between 60 and 90 seconds to get in their ambulance and on their way to an emergency. The 60 to 90 seconds is referred to as the chute time.

With the roving ambulance and crews required to be in the vehicle, Fredrickson says the chute time is out the window.

“When the emergency comes in, many times, they hear it on the scanner, even before we get the call and they start moving to that location,” said Fredrickson.

During FOX 11’s interview with the roving ambulance paramedics, an emergency call came in. The chute time from being dispatched was six seconds. The crew couldn't say whether they in fact were closer to the scene, but they got going quicker.

“It's improving the response times,” said Fredrickson. “They were good before. They are just going to be better.”

Fredrickson says response times should be even better in 30 days. That is when new software is expected to arrive to help guide the roving paramedics.

“It goes back five years and dumps data of all our calls of that region, that area, so we will know the likelihood of where the next call will be just from the computer,” said Fredrickson.

For now, the new rover will remain on the prowl in Grand Chute as the paramedics hope to be closer to where they are needed more often than they are now.

Gold Cross, owned by 4 area hospitals, plans to put two more of its nine Fox Valley ambulances on the prowl in the next two years.