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C)cITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK
<br /> change for are not necessarily medical problems. A lot of these are social issues. A lot of them are
<br /> just issues dealing with an elderly person that doesn't know how to get on the Medicare roles and
<br /> things along those lines. So, she's trained to be able to assist those people to get those services that
<br /> they need, to be able to direct them to the appropriate care. It's been a phenomenal program so far.
<br /> Suzie has impacted roughly two hundred and sixty (260) patients over the course of a year. We
<br /> anticipate working with the St. Joseph County Health Department to perhaps expand the services
<br /> provided by this program to help, hopefully, impact a high mortality rate and the fetal death rate
<br /> in St. Joseph County as well, by hopefully looking at at-risk mothers or newly pregnant women
<br /> who don't have the services that they need, and hopefully direct them to prenatal care, post-natal
<br /> care that then would, hopefully, have a positive impact on that problem.
<br /> He went on, We've already been working through the My Brother's Keeper program, the Mayor's
<br /> Office, and the Health Department to begin those discussions to see what that might look like
<br /> moving forward.We've also talked to other partners in the community,specifically Beacon Health,
<br /> in identifying ways in which they might help us make that program more sustainable, knowing
<br /> that they've also received a benefit from us reducing the amount of hospital beds that are being
<br /> used in the Emergency Room, and directing those patients to more appropriate care, even within
<br /> their system. So,those discussions are ongoing as well.This year,we implemented the South Bend
<br /> Fire Department Drone Team, which is leveraging technology to be able to help us better perform
<br /> our jobs. We have, I believe, twelve (12) individuals now within our Department on our drone
<br /> team that are FAA Certified Part 107 Pilots to be able to fly our drones, which have infrared
<br /> cameras. We have high-def cameras on these drones, as well, to be able to assist in incident
<br /> command overwatch, search and rescue activities, investigations, and risk assessments. On the
<br /> south side of downtown, when we had the building collapse earlier in the year, our drone team
<br /> folks were able to launch a drone to be able to inspect the building, without putting firefighters at
<br /> risk in the collapsed building, to be able to assess the damage. We anticipate actually utilizing that
<br /> more and more as it comes online.
<br /> He continued,We also as a department,received the Partners for Clean Air Award from MACOG.
<br /> This is in conjunction with us building Fire Station Number Four(4)as a LEED certified building.
<br /> We actually achieved LEED Gold status for that building. And Fire Station Number Nine (9) is
<br /> also a LEED project. We anticipate that being a LEED Silver building when that certification is
<br /> given to us, hopefully here in the next month or two (2). We anticipate that happening as well.
<br /> We're incredibly proud. As I mentioned, at our ribbon cutting on Monday, we are the first (1st)
<br /> department in the City that actually has a LEED certified building. And, we have two (2) of them
<br /> now. So, it's wonderful and we like the idea that we're actually pushing forward in sustainable
<br /> programming. I also have to apologize, I left one (1) item off here that I really need to talk about.
<br /> We implemented a Chase Car Program for our EMS services. In essence, what this does, it allows
<br /> us to be able to more appropriately respond to the certain levels of care that are needed when an
<br /> individual calls 9-1-1. So, it used to be that we'd send a lead paramedic ambulance to every single
<br /> EMS call, regardless of the acuity of the call. One (1) of the bonuses with us building the new
<br /> PSAP over on Mishawaka,and being a county-wide PSAP,is that we implemented a triage system
<br /> that the dispatcher basically will input information in a computer,it'll spit out a certain triage level,
<br /> and then we'll be able to send the more appropriate resources that we have on hand, on a daily
<br /> basis. What we've come to realize is that we don't need to send a lead paramedic ambulance on
<br /> every single call. In fact, we don't need to send a paramedic-level certified individual to probably
<br /> sixty percent(60%)of the EMS calls that we go on. So,this has a financial impact for us, as a lead
<br /> paramedic is the most expensive employee that we have in our department. Additionally, the
<br /> EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT
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