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Commentary by David Kovach, an 8-year member of the Kaneville Fire Protection District volunteers. The Elburn Herald Article "Got it Covered" featured on the front page of the 6-26-08 issue is a one-sided view of one person's personal, unfounded concern. First and foremost, however, ALWAYS CALL 911 IN AN EMERGENCY. Do not call any ambulance service directly, as the dispatchers are keeping track of ambulance coverage areas and available ambulances; in the event a department has already committed all its ambulances to calls, dispatch will automatically call the next-nearest available service. From the article, Kathy Heinrick is concerned that Big Rock ambulance provides coverage to her subdivision rather than Elburn. I'm not certain what advantage Elburn would have over any other ambulance service, since they are actually farther away from the particular subdivision in question than both Maple Park and Kaneville, and it is Kaneville who will respond when 911 is called. Her comment "If I had not known CPR, my husband would not have survived" is more likely an exaggeration than based on any medical evaluation and as placed in the article appears to condemn the amount of time it took for an ambulance to respond to her call for help. What is lost in the article is that Kaneville Fire Protection District volunteers provide first response, basic life support coverage to all areas of our 36 square mile district, including portions of Big Rock, Maple Park, Elburn and Sugar Grove, and our average response time to any EMS call anywhere in the district is under eight minutes. In addition, in less than 1 in 50 calls have KFD EMTs arrived after an ambulance from any location. This means that it is KFD's response time that makes the difference in an emergency. To directly address portions of the article, it is Heinrick's position that "it takes 14 to 16 minutes for an ambulance" to arrive, presumably to the Kaneland campus since she's asking "if parents are aware" of the time it takes. Firstly, the school district employs two very capable nurses who are present at the schools and usually have first contact with any patient. Secondly, the time estimate she provides does not appear to be based on any empirical evidence and certainly does not match any information documented by Kane County Dispatch. Similarly, Bert Brown's comment about the school being 11 miles from first response in the event of a tornado is completely false, since first response is coming from KFD 5 miles away, with additional help from Maple Park FD also five miles away and Elburn FD just over 5 miles away (incidentally, also over a set of train tracks, a comment of apparent indictment for Big Rock), and with each district dispatched sending responders who are both firefighters and highly trained EMTs. Mrs. Heinrick's concern for response time is understandable, and is equal to anyone's concern from the southwest portion of our district since the travel times would be reversed were Elburn to be the service provider, and as any concern would be at any point any distance from any service provider. The article, however, is written in an inflammatory manner with no apparent due diligence performed on verifiable statements presented. Mr. Brown's comments regarding how and when the change was made from Elburn Ambulance to Big Rock make it appear that the decision was made clandestinely, when in reality the matter was discussed openly at public meetings held by the Kaneville Fire Department Trustees, including research done on response times from available ambulance services, voted into place at one such meeting, and advertised both here on this website on 12-2-2003 and I believe in the Elburn Herald, which a search by the reporter would certainly have turned up. Also incorrectly reported in the article is the statement "When the cost became too much for the small department, the School District [sic] contracted with Big Rock." In reality, ambulance services are paid using tax money collected for fire and EMS services, not paid for in any way by the school district regardless of the number of calls originating at the schools. For perspective, at the time the ambulance service change was made, the KFD budget was on the order of $125,000 per year from taxes collected. Public records published in the Elburn Herald will show the dollar amount to provide ambulance coverage to the district was a little less than $30,000 in 2003, or 24% of the entire budget. Five years later the cost as published in the Herald is roughly $35,000 for the same coverage or about 16% of the current budget, due to sound financial planning, concern for citizen's tax bills, and foresight by district trustees. Analysis of ambulance response times subsequent to the change in services shows at most minimal differences from previous coverage, and a substantial cost savings. Isn't the same or better services for the same or lesser cost what should be expected of the trustees of our tax money? How often can we find an example of such intelligence in government spending? The question that comes to mind revolves around the service provided for the past nearly four and a half years by Big Rock Ambulance: With the saving of a life, a transition of service so smooth and successful as to have gone unnoticed to residents, and two districts successfully working together to provide quality service to all residents over some 1000 calls to 911 to date, why is a concern, brought up by one person, making the front page of the "local" paper and presented in a light so negative for the Kaneville Fire Protection District? |
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