A Dane County ambulance experiment is using common sense to save lives.
Last June, the 911 center and local EMS services agreed to dispatch the closest ambulance to an emergency.
While it may sound like an obvious decision, that hasn't always been the procedure.
Previously, dispatch was required to send the ambulance that serviced that particular city. But now, for example, if Fitch–Rona rescue can get to a call in Madison first, then they're dispatched to the scene.
And in an emergency situation, that saves precious time.
Fitch-Rona EMS Chief Brian Myrland says, " We're probably arriving somewhere in the neighborhood of three to five minutes faster and sometimes even 15 minutes faster if the local ambulance was on another call elsewhere."
Myrland says they are working on putting the practice into place permanently.
