Reducing Time to First on Scene: An Ambulance-Community First Responder Scheme

Table 1

Mean response times of CFR and ambulance crews by chief complaint, showing a statistically significant (at the 95% confidence level) mean decrease of 3 minutes and 8 seconds, comparing ambulance response times to CFR response times.

Chief complaint		Mean CFR response time/min	Mean ambulance response time/min	Difference in mean response time; (ambulance – CFR)/min
Generally ill	8 (10)	10:54	16:12	05:19
Falls	7 (8)	09:37	21:34	11:57
Unknown problem	1 (2)	05:31	08:38	03:07
Chest pain	19	08:03	09:21	01:18
Breathing problems	15	07:59	11:47	03:48
Convulsions	8	06:47	05:47	−01:00
Unconscious	7	05:34	09:39	04:05
Fainting	3	06:38	08:42	02:04
Head pain	3	10:44	10:27	−00:17
Stroke	3	10:51	12:43	01:52
Abdominal pain	2	15:29	14:19	0
Trauma	2	06:34	09:07	02:33
Allergy	1	10:33	11:11	00:38
Ambulance dispatch, 8 minutes	1	01:53	07:55	06:02
Back pain	1	11:03	18:55	07:52
Bleeding, nontraumatic	1	12:48	13:15	00:27
Burn	1	06:01	05:05	−00:56
Diabetic problems	1	03:49	04:14	00:25
Life-threatening situation	1	04:19	10:43	06:24
Overall	85 (89)	08:18	11:25	03:08
Confidence interval at 95% Confidence level		[07:11, 09:25]	[09:38, 13:12]	[01:02, 05:14]

= number of calls analyzed in this category. Figures in parenthesis, (#), indicate the total number of calls recorded, as per Assumption (4) in Section 4. One ambulance arrival time was excluded as the vehicle arrived before the CFR allocation time. Two ambulance arrival times were excluded as the vehicles arrived before the CFR allocation times. One call attended only by CFRs.
Over the 89 calls, the CFR group achieved an average response time of 8 minutes and 18 seconds (95% CI 07:11 to 09:25). This compares to the ambulance crew average response time of 11 minutes and 25 seconds (95% CI 09:38 to 13:12), presenting a statistically significant 3 minutes and 8 seconds of (95% CI 01:02 to 05:14) additional delay. Further, CFRs were first on scene in 59 out of 85 calls (69%; data not shown).