B. EMS/Ambulance Services

Emergency Medical Services in communities such as Lompoc present unique access and availability issues. According to the Santa Barbara EMS department, expanses of agricultural lands, widely dispersed rural communities and mountainous terrain can limit accessibility to emergency health care services.

The emergency room at Lompoc District Hospital is the hub of emergency care services in Lompoc. In 1996, the Emergency Room had a total of 14,213 visits. Of these visits, approximately 17% were Medicaid patients, 33% Medi-Cal, 28% Commercial and 22% other patients.

The high percentage of Medi-Cal is not surprising due to the fact that many Medi-Cal patients do not have regular health check-ups and utilize the emergency room as their primary care physician. Either they may not be informed on how to handle common health conditions that may arise or they wait until the condition becomes very acute to warrant medical attention.

The system of Emergency Medical Services in Lompoc also includes the ambulatory licensed providers (ALS) including American Medical Response and Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

American Medical Response (AMR) is located in Buelton, which is just outside the service area on the eastern border. This ambulance service is privately owned and operated and currently has 15 ambulance units and a paid staff. AMR provides paramedic or EMT2 level advanced life support and uses police medical dispatch communications through 911. By contractual obligations, code 3 response time must be 8 minutes or less 90% of the time.

Santa Barbara County Fire Department (SBCFD) is county-owned and operated and based in Santa Barbara. The department has 4 units and an all paid staff. SBCFD provides paramedic or EMT2 level advanced life support and uses police medical dispatch communications through 911. By contractual obligations, code 3 response time must be 8 minutes or less, 90% of the time. According to the operations manager, they are compliant 94% of the time.

Only county-wide utilization for these ambulance services is available. Therefore, table 6.3 showing the number of ground and air emergency transports for Lompoc could not be produced.

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