Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Study

The Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments (NECCOG) has been awarded a Regional Performance Incentive Program (RPIP) grant by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM) through the Program to conduct a study regarding the state of pre-hospital emergency care in the region covered by NECCOG. The goal of the study is to evaluate the current pre-hospital emergency care system in the Region, examine alternatives to the current delivery system and make recommendations (as warranted) to enhance patient care.

To address the study NECCOG will establish a Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Advisory Committee and retain a qualified consultant for the evaluation of the existing pre-hospital emergency care services and future program options for such services. The Advisory Committee is to be made up of representatives from each town engaged in BLS (Basic Life Support) services, representatives of ALS (Advanced Life Support) services, representatives from emergency medical control for Day Kimball Hospital, Windham Hospital and Backus Hospital, representatives from respective 911dispatch centers, the District EMS director and two chief elected officials and others as may be decided during the course of the study. NECCOG is charged with chairing and coordinating the study. The study will include an examination of the current issues related to the recruitment and retention of volunteers – as well as the impacts of hiring paid staff and/or services to perform in lieu of volunteers. In addition to an evaluation of the current pre-hospital system for the region, the consultant will be asked to review the following options:

  1. Administrative consolidation primarily focusing on savings through combining human resources, clerical, and other functions across several departments.
  2. Partial consolidation maintaining separate departments but creating a joint working group to identify potential efficiency gains, such as jointly operating a station or team.
  3. Functional consolidation keeping departments legally separate, but having the departments work together to perform special functions, such as training services.
  4. Operational consolidation combining aspects of functional and administrative consolidation to make multiple legally separate departments deliver standard and special services as if a seamless single entity.
  5. Selected geographical consolidation taking advantage of variations in service demands across an area to keep certain functions separate where demand is high while taking advantage of economies of scale in low-density areas.
  6. Full consolidation combining departments to make one legal and operational entity.

The consultant will be asked to provide the costs for each potential approach as well as the possible benefits/adverse impacts. The consultant will be asked to develop key indicators of system performance.

Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Study Report, Phase II

Request for QualificationsProposals – Pre-Hospital Emergency Care, Phase II

Pre- Hospital Emergeny Care Study Report, Phase I