Aging Population Enhances Need for Paramedics

Menomonee Falls residents have, as a whole, become drastically older over the last decade.

And as Falls continues to age, the medical needs for its residents also follow suit. The volume of emergency medical calls among elderly residents is on the rise, and many of those calls require advanced life support measures.

As a result, Menomonee Falls Fire Chief Jeffrey Hevey said, the village’s population is enhancing the need for the fire department to begin deploying its own team of paramedics like most communities in the Milwaukee Metro area.

It’s all in the numbers

Since 2000, the percentage of village residents over the age of 62 increased by 12.9 percent, according to U.S. Census data. In 2000, 18.6 percent, or 6,058 residents, were over the age of 62. In 2010, that total swelled to 21 percent of the population, or 7,484 residents.

The median age of Falls residents increased 10 percent over the same span, from 39.2 years old in 2000 to 43.3 years old in 2010. The national median age is 37.2.

“There are people in this community that go to work during the daytime and are in an advanced life support system, and when they come home at night they step down a bit.” — Falls Fire Chief Jeffrey Hevey

As the population continues to age in Menomonee Falls, the MFFD is also seeing a parallel trend in its yearly call data. In 2011, the fire department received 2,032 emergency medical calls, up 9.7 percent from 2010. Of the 2011 calls, 57 percent were for patients over the age of 64. Roughly 40 percent of calls required advanced life support for the patient’s trip to the hospital.

“Anytime you have an older community you are going to have higher levels of services for medical issues,” Hevey said. “And Menomonee Falls has an older community.”

Hevey said most of the calls his EMTs respond to are for falls, difficulty breathing, chest pain, seizures and strokes. Here’s a look at the totals for the most common types of calls in 2011.

Falls is also home to several assisted living and retirement facilities. Hevey said 35 percent of the department's calls come from those facilities, such as Tamarack Hill, and Linden Grove.

“They’re always going to put a little strain on the local EMS system,” Hevey said.

A new six-building assisted living development is also set to open in the near future. The six buildings would occupy about 8 acres of land at W180N8214 Town Hall Rd., which is between and a residential neighborhood. According to the developer’s plan, all six buildings would be one-story. Each building would contain 25 rooms with a common dining area, living space and laundry room.

“Within a week of them opening that place, our calls will go up along Town Hall Road,” Hevey said.

Expanded services to suit the population

But what do all these numbers mean?

Menomonee Falls stands out as one of the few communities of its size that still lacks a full paramedic service. When emergency calls are received, the crew that arrives on the scene is comprised of basic emergency medical technicians (EMT) and intermediate EMTs. Falls does call in support from neighboring communities with paramedics on staff if needed.

However, when minutes can mean the difference between life and death, an emergency team with the maximum amount of tools at its disposal can help improve patient outcomes, Hevey said.

“Our EMTs deliver a good compassionate service to people. We just want to step up to that next level,” Hevey said. “There are people in this community that go to work (in another community) during the daytime and are in an advanced life support system, and when they come home at night they step down a bit.”

The basic difference between an EMT and a paramedic is the ability to administer medications on the scene. Paramedics can give medications that increase a patient’s blood pressure during a cardiac arrest, or prevent multiple seizures from a patient suffering from one. Paramedics can also insert breathing tubes through the trachea, plant IVs into bone, and give a person pain medication.

Though the differences may appear subtle, every extra effort made on the scene can help keep a patient viable, and increase the odds of survival once they reach the hospital. For an older population with more complex medical needs, a higher level of service will result in better outcomes.

“That person stands a better chance of surviving, for example, a cardiac arrest through the ER, and they are more viable when they come out of the hospital,” Hevey said.

Catching up to other communities

Surrounding communities both large and small have been offering full paramedic services for a number of years. In Brookfield, paramedics were trained and deployed in the 1990s. The department now employs 24 paramedics on its staff, said Brookfield Fire Chief Charlie Meyers.

“Every ambulance is a paramedic ambulance,” Meyers said. “I see that as something that is very fortunate for the city, and that’s something they have maintained over the years.”

In 2011, the Brookfield Fire Department responded to just over 2,000 ambulance calls, which is right on pace with the total calls in Menomonee Falls, a community of comparable size. However, Meyers said the size of the community isn’t what justifies implementing paramedics; rather it’s the demand from its residents.

“I don’t think that needs to be dependent on the size of the community. I think it depends on the community's wishes and the services they want to have.” — Brookfield Fire Chief Charlie Meyers

Other communities like Waukesha and New Berlin all have paramedics riding in the ambulance to calls. Even communities that pale in size compared to Menomonee Falls have paramedics on their emergency crews. Lisbon, Elm Grove and Thiensville have the service that isn’t available in Menomonee Falls.

“I don’t think that needs to be dependent on the size of the community. I think it depends on the community's wishes and the services they want to have,” Meyers said.

In Lisbon, every call has one or two paramedics in the ambulance.

“The care that is offered to the patient, the confidence that paramedics have developed, and the whole delivery of the service across the board has been upgraded and it's much more professional,” said Lisbon Fire Chief Doug Brahm.

Toward the future

By the time the leaves start changing in 2012, Hevey hopes to have an updated five-year comprehensive plan for the future of the department.

“Paramedics will be at the front of the roadmap to bring advanced life support care here to Menomonee Falls,” Hevey said. “You look at all these people, and advanced life support would help them a lot.”

Hevey said there would be an initial cost of roughly $100,000 to start a paramedics program. Continuing the service would run roughly $300,000 annually, which is mostly wages and benefits for the paramedics. Ambulance transport fees could also fund a significant portion of those costs.

The Falls actually had 19 members who have completed paramedic training on their own time and budget. However, in 2011 Hevey said they lost five of those members to surrounding departments that offer the service and allow them to use their additional skills.

Earlier in summer, Falls joined the Germantown, Lisbon, Lannon and Richfield fire departments to discuss collaborating and working together to share the costs of a paramedics program in the area. Recently, the group applied for a $700,000 grant with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Falls’ portion of that grant, if received, would be $110,000 to train for four full-time and four part-time paramedics.

The grant money would cover training costs and time off for members selected to become paramedics.

“We want to be able to provide advanced life support to a greater population,” Hevey said.