Department Fail Rates Now Posted by Luzerne County, Pa.

Luzerne County government has started publicly posting lists of emergency agencies that don’t respond to 911 medical calls in a timely manner, forcing the public to wait longer than necessary for help.

The posting, accessible under the 911 department at www.luzernecounty.org, is part of the county’s ongoing push to address emergency response and dispatch issues.

The “no crew” reports cover two periods: April 1 through June 30 and July 1 through Sept. 30.

The reports list the number of times responders were not en route to a call within nine minutes or waited until calls were dispatched to notify 911 that they were unavailable.

Among the municipal emergency responders with 20 or more no-crew violations in at least one of the two reports: Ashley, Bear Creek/Buck Township, Edwardsville, Freeland, Huntington Township, Mountaintop, Nescopeck, Plymouth and West Wyoming.

State law indicates that one instance of failing to crew is unacceptable, which means responders that consistently rack up multiple violations may be in danger of losing their licenses.

The county has been reporting all no-crew violations to the state but also started sending reports to municipal officials this year to make them aware of potential concerns.

Municipalities decide which responders are initially dispatched for emergencies in their jurisdictions.

The county allows emergency responders nine minutes to accept or reject a call before the next agency can be summoned.

Earlier this month, county Councilwoman Kathy Dobash proposed shortening the wait for first responders from nine to six minutes, saying it is necessary to prevent “long waits by suffering victims.”

A council majority did not support Dobash’s proposal to reduce the time, opting instead to continue monitoring and reporting response problems.

The council’s 911 inquiry committee had considered but rejected a response time reduction earlier this year, primarily due to complaints from emergency volunteer organizations that said the change was unrealistic and could force them to lose their licenses and shut down.

The temporary committee was created to dissect problems impeding emergency response after complaints about delays and at least two instances of crews dispatched to the wrong location for emergencies in which the subjects died.

Instead, the committee agreed to continue educating municipalities about response time concerns in their jurisdictions and alerting the state when responders fail to summon crews.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.

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