'It's a game changer': ATCEMS' water response times down to 3 minutes

Austin-Travis County EMS' new pilot program on local lakes has dramatically cut down response times out on the water.

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Austin-Travis County EMS' new pilot program on local lakes has dramatically cut down response times out on the water.

"17 minutes, 17 and a half minutes down to three to four minutes. We've already seen just a fantastic improvement in our response times," ATCEMS Assistant Chief of EMS Operations Michael Wright said.

Wright said ATCEMS medics are out on the water alongside Austin Police Department patrol boats on Lady Bird Lake and Lake Austin.

"Instead of just waiting on the ground transport to get there and specialized resources, we can put them right on the water," Wright said. "They're there within minutes."

Wright said a major benefit to this program is that it helps keep ground transport units available for other calls.

"We are actually adding resources back into the system, because otherwise those resources would be tied up for hours," Wright said. "But instead, they're not 93% of the time."

The number and types of calls

The pilot program launched towards the middle of March but recently calls have increased as it heats up.

"In May, we started seeing that uptick. There were actually 51 responses. And out of those 51 responses, 40% of those were EMS specific," Wright said.

Wright said they respond to a bit of everything.

"We're seeing injuries, mental health emergencies, intoxication emergencies, general medical emergencies. We've had a couple of critical calls," he said.

When it comes to those critical calls, Wright said a situation that would've been searching for a water drowning victim is now just helping somebody get back into the boat.

"We prevent it from even becoming an emergency because of how fast we can be there," Wright said.

Expanding personnel and lake coverage

At the moment, ATCEMS is only on Lake Austin and Lady Bird Lake. However, Wright said there are talks to expand that to Lake Travis for some upcoming holidays and possibly beyond that.

"We expect to have assets on the water, EMS assets on the water for Fourth of July and Labor Day," Wright said.

Currently, four EMS personnel are assigned to this program. There are at least one or two out on the water every single day. Wright said the goal is to grow.

"Eventually we will have five on the water through all three lakes," he said.