Regionalized Emergency Medical Services

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

In 2006, Gloucester County began studying the delivery of Emergency Medical Services within the county boundaries after receiving many requests from mayors, local government leaders, and EMS personnel asking the county to lead an effort tin this crucial public service. An exploratory committee was charged with studying the current structure and looking at how regionalization could enhance what was already in place. After much research and deliberation, regionalized EMS was implemented on September 30, 2007 in ten of Gloucester County’s 24 towns becoming the first county based EMS in the state of New Jersey. Because of its success, more towns have opted in and now services have expanded to 13 municipalities. Gloucester County EMS is currently made up of a fleet of 19 ambulances and multiple support vehicles, 160 dedicated employees with nine working stations. The nine stations operate 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, with an additional crew during peak demand time. In the first year, 11,680 calls were responded to with an average response time running under 6 minutes.