Monroe Township sees EMS response times reduced after new staffing model, new ambulance put into service

The Monroe Township Fire Protection District has seen success with a new daytime fire and emergency medical services staffing model since January, Deputy Chief Richard Wilson said Aug. 4.

On Jan. 6, the station began staffing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to better service its residents and improve response times, with plans to possibly expand to seven-day coverage in the future. The move was made due to an increasing number of calls for service during working hours, when many paid on-call members are unavailable due to their career commitments.

“The new staffing model has drastically helped our community through quicker response times,” Wilson said. “We are evaluating expanding right now with funding. Right now, it’s working out great, and the community is being served. We’ve seen a drastic reduction in mutual aid coming into our community to cover our town while all of our personnel are at work. The calls that we couldn’t respond to last year were in the 30th percentile. Now we’re at around the 12th percentile.”

Before the staffing change, mutual-aid companies from the area including Kirkland, Lynn Scott Rock, New Milford and Stillman were responding to more calls in Monroe Township’s coverage area.

“They were getting a lot of the burden,” Wilson said. “All of our employees are paid on-call and work jobs outside of town and were unavailable. Stillman fire has a full-time ambulance. LSR has people around during the daytime. This being an older community with no volunteers in town, we were relying on them. We’re starting to take more care of our own community.”

The Monroe Township fire district mostly responds to medical calls. From January to the end of July, it received 60 EMS calls. Last year, that number was 55 over the same period. Total calls from January through July last year was 91, and this year it’s at 105. With the increase in calls, the new staffing model has been on-site for service three days a week.

With its proximity to Interstate 39, the Monroe Township fire district on occasion responds to serious highway incidents, and did as recently as July 26 for a two-vehicle crash with multiple injuries. One person suffered severe injuries and required helicopter transport. Wilson said responses like that wouldn’t have been possible without response from mutual-aid companies from the area.

“In the fire service, a firefighter is a firefighter,” Wilson said. “They all have the same common goals of protecting lives and saving property, in that order. You can go to another state or country and the same goal applies. It’s life safety first and then property conservation. We’re an all-hazards fire department. We respond to everything.”

On July 18, the Monroe Township fire district put a new 2024 ambulance into service, replacing a 2006 unit. The new ambulance was purchased due to high maintenance costs on the older model. Wilson said the new ambulance will serve the district for the next 15 to 20 years and has upgraded technology to aid personnel and patients such as power-loading cots and a power-assisted stair chair.

Wilson credited Monroe Township Fire Chief Scott Jaeger and EMS coordinator Capt. Michaelle Jaeger for their work on acquiring the new ambulance and putting it into service.

“The new ambulance took hours and hours to get and get put into service,” Wilson said. “It goes from evaluating what you want and what you need. The needs outweigh the wants, and it comes down to dollars and cents. Once you identify the need, you have to be forward-thinking. We read articles and learned about the newest, best technology. The chief is a good steward of taxpayers’ money, and he came up with a good proposal with the EMS coordinator, and the board approved it.”

The new ambulance saw a two-month delay in delivery due to supply chain issues, and the Monroe Township fire district worked to outfit it for two months before it was put into service. Wilson thanked taxpayers for allowing the district to purchase equipment and stay current.

The new staffing model has seen a positive response from people in the community, Wilson said.

“One person recently called 911 for their mother, who was not feeling well,” Wilson said. “The station was staffed at the time. We pulled up, and the 911 caller told me they were going to drive themselves because they thought it would take too long for the ambulance to get there. And we pulled into the driveway, and the caller was surprised. We want the fact that we’re doing daytime staffing to get out to the community.”

Wilson previously worked as a battalion chief in a full-time fire department for 26 years in a suburb outside Chicago. He’s been with the Monroe Township fire district for about 17 years and noticed the difference in longer response times in rural communities.

“Those services, you hang up the phone and people are pulling into the driveway,” Wilson said. “Here, people were OK with 15-minute response times. We’ve almost cut that in half just with daytime help. We can be out of the station within one to three minutes. We can be at the house within six to seven minutes versus 15 to 20 minutes. People have made comments about how fast it’s been. That’s another feather in our cap of doing our job right.”