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As Mecklenburg County grows, and the rate of non-emergency 911 calls grows with it, Medic launched an industry-leading approach to prioritize patients with life-threatening emergencies. The Agency’s response configuration went live in April 2023 including changes to what type of resources go to calls, how they are dispatched (lights & sirens) and different response time targets for non-emergent calls.

What these changes mean for the community (data from May-December 2023):

  • Rapid response to high-priority emergencies have not changed
  • The use of lights and sirens have dropped from 76% to 21% for Medic
  • First responder (fire department) volume has decreased by 17%, better preserving their resources
  • Medic-involved traffic accidents responding lights and sirens have decreased by 33%
  • Responses are better aligned to the severity of a patient’s condition (similar to Emergency Department triage)

WATCH NOW!

Presentation to Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners pre-launch- in December 2022:
View now in English
View now en Espanol

Presentation to Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners post-launch in December 2023:
View now in English
View now en Espanol

Medic and fire departments have traditionally been dispatched with lights & sirens with a rapid response time to the majority of calls (76%). As you can see below, very few (5%) actually needed a high priority transport to the hospital. This causes an overuse of resources that could be better preserved for life-threatening emergencies.

All changes have been deemed safe by Medic’s Medical Director, Medical Control Board and Agency Board of Commissioners, which include representatives from Atrium Health, Novant Health and Mecklenburg County. In October 2021, Medic also extended some non-emergency calls to a 60-minute response time target.

After evaluating a full year’s worth of data from these calls, less than 1% needed a high priority transport to the hospital, and the average response time to these calls was 32 minutes. 0% of patients were adversely impacted due to response times.

Have questions or feedback about Medic’s recent changes? We want to hear from you!