The county’s new ambulance contract doesn’t meet national standards for response times

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Response times are very important when defining adequate emergency medical/fire services; the National Fire Protection Association established nationwide consensus standards, NFPA Standard 1710, for those services.

For example, the standard specifies that a fire engine with four members is expected to arrive at a medical or fire emergency four minutes after dispatch 90 percent of the time. Staffing for basic life support responses is two members with basic (AED-qualified) first responder skills and for advance life support (e.g., cardiac arrest, major traumatic injury) two paramedic-qualified personnel on scene within eight minutes.

No fire engine in the county is staffed with four people. Lompoc currently has no paramedics; however, there are qualified AED emergency medical technicians on each crew. 

In the Lompoc 2030 General Plan it says, “The first fire department response units capable of initiating effective incident intervention shall arrive at a priority emergency within six minutes 20 seconds from receipt of the call at the dispatch center, 90 percent of the time.” 

Sometimes the standard can’t be met because there are several concurrent calls for service every week, and, according to the city manager’s report during the week of Feb. 8 to 14, there were 30 such calls and the following week 24, meaning there were no units available to respond to other calls.

To put the response issue in perspective, the International Association of Firefighters says that during sudden cardiac arrest within “six to 10 minutes: brain damage [is] very likely in the absence of advanced life support intervention.” This type of care requires that a crew consisting of two paramedics and two basic life support arrive on location within seven minutes.

The new Santa Barbara County ambulance contract (beginning on page 23) stipulates that for Priority 1, “potentially life-threatening emergency responses” an ambulance with paramedic service will arrive within seven minutes and 59 seconds 90 percent of the time in “urban areas” like the city of Lompoc.

This response time begins “when the call is time stamped” by the county designated communications center. This refers to the countywide fire department communication center that will soon begin operations.

For Priority 2, “non-life threatening” emergencies the ambulance must arrive within 10 minutes and 59 seconds 90 percent of the time.

For rural areas, the arrival time standard is considerably longer.

The new contract allows the county Fire Department to provide ambulance services in the greater Lompoc, Cuyama, and Carpentaria/Summerland/Montecito areas. The city of Lompoc approved construction of a station in the city Old Town area to house ambulances and staff, and the county has quarters for ambulances and staff in the Mesa Oaks area north of town.

Prior to the initial awarding of the contract to the county Fire Department, the Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of 35 new ambulances. In the new contract, a substantial number of these won’t be needed for this limited-service area and so the excess will likely be sold at a considerable loss of taxpayer funds because technically they are “used.”

Will this new contract, including a 35 percent rate increase, provide adequate ambulance service? Politicians have a poor track record when it comes to making decisions like this. Only “response time” will tell if this one works.

One example of why it might be inadequate is crew size; this contract does not include a provision for two paramedics to arrive at Priority 1 calls within four minutes after dispatch 90 percent of the time.

Clearly the new contract approved by the Board of Supervisors doesn’t meet any of the national consensus standards of care, so it’s no wonder that fire chiefs of several jurisdictions are concerned, including Lompoc Fire Chief Brian Fallon who, according to Noozhawk, said, “Our disappointment on hearing about the AMR contract extension cannot be overstated.”

That’s an understatement if you are the one waiting for life-saving care.

Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a letter for publication to letters@santamariasun.com.

This article appears in Mar 6-16, 2025.