Menu

As Mecklenburg County grows, and the rate of non-emergency 911 calls grows with it, Medic is undergoing an industry-leading approach to prioritize patients with life-threatening emergencies. The Agency’s response configuration will be updated (tentatively March 2023) including changes to what type of resources go to calls, how they are dispatched (lights & sirens) and different response time targets for non-emergent calls.

What these changes mean for the community:

  • Rapid response to high-priority emergencies will not change!
  • The use of lights and sirens have dropped from 76% to 19% for Medic
  • The use of lights and sirens have dropped from 99% to 49% for fire departments
  • Response will better align to the severity of a patient’s condition (similar to Emergency Department triage)

WATCH NOW! View a recent presentation provided to the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners as an overview of the changes.

View now in English
View now en Espanol

Medic and fire departments have traditionally been dispatched with lights & sirens with a rapid response time to the majority of calls (76%). As you can see below, very few (5%) actually needed a high priority transport to the hospital. This causes an overuse of resources that could be better preserved for life-threatening emergencies.

All changes have been deemed safe by Medic’s Medical Director, Medical Control Board and Agency Board of Commissioners, which include representatives from Atrium Health, Novant Health and Mecklenburg County. In October 2021, Medic also extended some non-emergency calls to a 60-minute response time target.

After evaluating a full year’s worth of data from these calls, less than 1% needed a high priority transport to the hospital, and the average response time to these calls was 32 minutes. 0% of patients were adversely impacted due to response times.

Learn more about the reconfiguration at one of six community meetings. Each presentation will be followed by a question & answer session with Medic Leadership. The session will cover:

  • Upcoming changes to 911 responses in Mecklenburg County
  • Opportunity to understand better how the 911 system works in our community
  • Learn tips on determining life-threatening symptoms

Register today at one of the following locations:

Download the community meeting flier!

Have questions or feedback about Medic’s recent changes? We want to hear from you!