Item B - Fire/EMS Stds of Cover - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Section Six: Time and On-Scene Performance Task Time - the total time interval from notification time through termination of the incident. It reflects the period of time response resources are committed and unavailable for other service requests. Response Time -- includes the elements of responding to an incident that are directly under the control of the Fire & EMS Department (i.e., Tumout Time plus Travel Time) Customer Time - Eugene Fire & EMS has developed this interval measure as an indicator of the calling party's perception of the emergency response system. It includes those factors that reflect the performance of the entire response system, whether or not the department directly controls those elements. This interval adds the call processing interval to the response time interval. Time Methodology Description There are two basic components to a performance standard. The first is the measurable task, e.g., response time. The second part is the level of performance. This is normally stated in terms of an average or a percentage (fractile) of the amount of such tasks that fall at or below the desired level, e.g., 80%. Using this evaluation methodology, an organization can clearly articulate its performance standards and goals in a manner that is easily understood. For example, the statement, "The fire apparatus will leave the station within 60 seconds of alarm activation, at least 75% of the time," is a performance goal that can clearly be understood by everyone. Performance can be measured in a number of ways, including average (mean), fractile, and median (center value). While average times have some utility, they are not wholly useful measures of performance unless coupled with some measures which describe the "shape" of the performance curve, such as variances or standard deviation. Two fire departments can report the same "average" response time, yet the two communities can receive vastly different services. For example, City A, with a 4-minute average response time, could have response times falling somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes. City B, with the same 4-minute average response time, could have a few calls with a response time of less than one minute and some calls with a response time of 10 minutes or longer. Thus, the use of"averages" has the effect of concealing, rather than clearly demonstrating, true response performance for an agency. The following definitions will help complete the analysis picture: Average - Also known as the mean, it is calculated by adding all of the times and dividing by the total number of incidents. 80th and 85% Percentiles - These are the interval times in 80% and 85% of all incidents respectively. While no single measure tells the entire story, Eugene Fire & EMS has chosen to use fractile measures in its performance standards because they represent the large majority of tasks 57