While many Citrus County residents spent their Friday getting ready for the weekend, the county's Fire Rescue Services personnel marked the day as the start of a new service that will see Fire Rescue answering emergency medical calls.

Citrus County Fire Chief Larry Morabito says the trial program will run for six months, and will be evaluated every 30 days to see how effective it will be for county residents.

The county's Fire Rescue service merged with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office in 2011, and both Morabito and Sheriff Jeff Dawsy both began discussing how fire service could be made more effective and responsive.

"We talked about new ways to do things to improve service and better serve the community," Morabito said. "One of the things we talked about was EMS. The Citrus County Public Task Force talked about a number of things, one of which was a QRV - a Quick Response Vehicle."

Morabito said that there will be four vehicles that will be outfitted to provide the new enhanced services - one at DeRosa, another at Floral City and a third at Sugarmill Woods. Rather than being referred to as a QRV, each vehicle will be called a "squad."

Each vehicle will have equipment that includes water and a water pump, Jaws of Life to be used to extricate traffic-accident victims as needed, AED's (Automatic Electric Defibrillation) and other necessary equipment. Morabito said each of the three fire stations now have in place the right personnel to staff these vehicles.

In addition, these QRV "squad" truck will be able to respond to pretty much anything but a structure fire, Morabito said, and classified as multi-purpose vehicles.

The "enhanced services", he said, will not cost any money in terms of equipment or personnel, although there will be operational costs incurred, such as for fuel, maintenance for the trucks and putting more miles on the trucks. But Morabito added, "It's a fine balancing act to improve our level service and not increase cost."

Any costs will have to come from Fire Rescue's budget, which is separate from the Sheriff's Office's budget, Morabito said. "We still have the same special taxing fire district as when we were under the Board of County Commissioners. So now all our our spending for Fire Rescue comes from that special taxing district's budget. The sheriff doesn't supplement that, and the sheriff's budget comes out of the county General Fund."

Morabito said, "It's not a merged budget. It's just a merged operation."

Fire Rescue will be using existing equipment and personnel, Morabito said, in providing these enhanced services to county residents.

Fire Rescue will not transport anyone - that will be the job of Naturecoast EMS. Qualified firefighters will administer aid until Naturecoast EMS paramedics arrive. After responding to an "echo level" call, Fire Rescue personnel will go with Naturecaost EMS paramedics to any appropriate local hospital, but there will not be a charge to patients for Fire Rescue's service on a patient's medical bill, Morabito said.

Morabito said that, besides vehicle crashes, Fire Rescue had been responding, since the spring of 2008, to all EMS calls for service along with Naturecoast EMS. Then, Morabito said, Fire Rescue decided to only respond to calls classified at "Echo level"; that is, life-threatening or critical in nature.

Under the new concept, Deputy Fire Services Chief Jim Goodworth said, Fire Rescue will respond to the life-threatening types of calls, as well as to incidents involving such things as burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, chest pain, seizure, hemorrhage, overdose/poison, childbirth, gunshot/stabbing and stroke.

When a 911 call comes in, there will be a special fire dispatcher who will ask a battery of questions that will determine the level of service required for a particular situation, Goodworth said. If that level reaches the life-threatening stage, or falls into another type of call handled by Fire Rescue personnel, a "squad" vehicle and its personnel will be dispatched. Fire Rescue personnel will administer necessary aid until the Naturecoast EMS paramedics arrive.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy and fire officials have said they believe this added level of response will shave crucial seconds from response times, especially in the county’s outlying areas. Those areas include DeRosa, Floral City and Sugarmill Woods, Morabito said.

Goodworth said the service is not a competition, but a matter of teamwork with Naturecoast EMS. "It's a real benefit to work with Naturecoast EMS, and having the same medical director," Goodworth said.

Morabito said Fire Rescue's goal is to keep standard practices in place, but find new ways to implement them. "This QRV - or, what we call a 'squad' - is part of that. We implemented the first one about two weeks ago. It's not meant to replace a fire engine - it's not meant to replace anything, really. It's meant to supplement our ability to respond," Morabito said.

The new, enhanced services, are also an outgrowth of talks with people at Naturecoast EMS, Morabito said. He said that Goodworth and EMS Medical Director Dr. Mary Ann Kolar, who serves as the medical director for Fire Rescue and Naturecoast EMS, developed a set of protocols that will provide enhanced basic life support services.

Morabito added that he and Sheriff Dawsy think the new services will work, but there won't be a lot of money put into the project during the trial period.

When will service to DeRosa, Floral City and Sugarmill Woods begin?

Morabito said it could be as soon as March, but that the exact date would depend on what would needed to be added to designated "squad" vehicles to put them into full-time service - such as upgraded medical bags and other necessities that would be required for medical calls.

"This deals with safety," Morabito said. "Our people are going to generally be much closer (than Naturecoast EMS) if they're not out on another call. They cal get there, stabilize the patient, EMS picks up the patient and transports."

Morabito added, for clarity, "We are not transporting. We are not looking to get into the transport business."

Will the new enhanced services make a real difference for the community? Goodworth says that every 30 days during the six-month trial period, an analysis will be performed to answer that very question.

"We are going to look at each of the areas within the county and then ask, 'Are we making a difference?' And we will see if we where the places are where the new services are making a significant impact," Goodworth said. If the analysis shows that the system needs to be tweaked, then changes can be made to make it more efficient and effective."

FOR THE RECORD:

• Click to read all articles about the Citrus County Public Safety Task Force