MEDIA INVITE ONLY: Join Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Wednesday as the first Peak-Hour Ambulances hit the street to help address strained ambulance crews.
- Who: Hillsborough County Fire Rescue
- What: First day of Peak-Hour Ambulance deployment
- Where: HCFR Station 16, 9205 Kevin Dr., Riverview, FL, 33569
- When: 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 1, 2024
- Why: Interview and video available as first crews set out
Hillsborough County, Fla. (April 30, 2024) - The region's rapid population growth has increased Hillsborough County Fire Rescue's (HCFR) response times and placed a strain on the agency's first responders, who often respond to up to 20 medicals calls per shift in some of the County's busiest neighborhoods.
To improve response times, HCFR is deploying five additional reserve ambulances during peak hours. The Peak-Hour Ambulance deployments will feature three-person crews working overtime to address the growing demands on the medical teams.
About two-thirds of Hillsborough County's ambulances operate at unsustainable levels of utilization, which slows response times. Industry data also shows that ambulance crews in areas with unsustainably high utilization are likely to experience fatigue and burnout, which can lead to potential retention issues within the department. While the department is not seeing these outcomes yet, this proactive measure aims to prevent potential fatigue and stress.
Using the fleet of reserve ambulances - ones that are usually put into service only when one of the front-line ambulances is out for maintenance - HCFR will have extra coverage in the busiest parts of the County beginning May 1.
Using data and analytics to determine where the extra ambulances can best help Fire Rescue ease the strain on existing crews, each peak-hour ambulance will work a 12-hour shift in parts of town that need them the most.
Link: Audio and Video of crews loading medical equipment and technology into the peak-hour ambulances for broll: Broll of HCFR crews loading ambulances