Louisa County - Virginia Department of Fire Programs

THEME 3: PERSONNEL, RECRUITMENT AND RETENTIONA consistent organizational structure between the volunteer Fire and EMS organizationsand career staff was not found. Operationally, this presents several concerns andbarriers towards accomplishing a homogeneous, high quality level of service throughoutthe County.Stated herein will be a review of the five (5) findings found to have the most impact onthis issue: Staffing; Accountability; Volunteer Issues; Career Issues; and Recruitment &Retention.Staffing:The current staffing is still negatively affected by past problems, which has built barriersbetween volunteer and career members. Existing silos must be removed before majorimprovements can be realized. The basic benchmark for staffing must be that whichprovides the quickest, most economical and most reliable service to the citizens of theCounty.Recommendations:1. A minimum staffing plan needs to be developed based on call volume andquantitative data. Based on the current staffing system this plan needs to accountfor both Fire and EMS staffing.a. Care must be taken to ensure that the efforts of volunteers are notmarginalized. Current data reflects a decrease in the call volume atall stations. As stated above, there is an increase of calls run bycareer members, which decreased the number of calls answered byvolunteer members, particularly in the second and third due areas.b. A simple and reliable system must be developed to capture thenumber of calls in which a combination volunteer and career crew,respond to a call for service.c. A staffing system needs to be established by which on duty EMScrews can be scheduled and/or accounted for and entered into thesystem. This in conjunction with the other recommendations shouldimprove the dispatching of both the closest crew as well as the crewwhich has the appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities to best servethe patient. This system should also reduce the current confusionwhich results in the duplication of responders which is an inefficientuse of resources.d. This new system must also adjust the time frame in which a seconddue department is dispatched. The current 15 minutes appears notto be beneficial to the citizen requesting assistance.The foregoing is a recommendation authorized pursuant to Va. Code 9.1‐203.A.4 and is not to beconstrued as legal advice or as a binding recommendation.20 of 30