CAPE ELIZABETH – A program established by the town this year has cut rescue response times in half and reduced Cape Elizabeth’s reliance on aid from neighboring towns.

A less active volunteer on-call force and an increase in ambulance response times led Fire Chief Peter Gleeson to request that the town pay for a paramedic to be on duty during the day seven days a week.

Filling the shifts costs the town about $76,400 a year, from the existing fund for volunteers’ per diem pay.

Last year, 85 percent of the town’s rescue calls were received between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., and 55 percent of the calls came in between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.

“In the past, we had been relying on a small core of members to cover our daytime calls and often found ourselves utilizing mutual aid more frequently, especially when those individuals were not available to respond,” Gleeson wrote to town councilors in a program update. “Additionally, lengthy response times were a subject of concern for many.”

In 2011, the average response time for rescue calls was just over 10 minutes. Since Jan. 1, the average response time during the hours covered by the on-duty paramedic has been shortened to five minutes.

The average response time for all hours this year is just over seven minutes.

The response time reflects the arrival of an ambulance, not necessarily care providers, Gleeson said. In almost all cases, police officers or rescue company emergency medical technicians reach the scene before an ambulance.

Police officers in Cape Elizabeth are certified EMTs and their cruisers are equipped with oxygen, defibrillators and first aid kits.

“It’s working extremely well. We’re getting to calls faster,” Town Manager Michael McGovern said of the program. “I’ve heard anecdotally of three people who would not be with us if it were not for this program.”

The rescue department responded to a total of 492 calls for service in 2011 and is on track to surpass that this year. In the first six months of 2012, the department responded to 310 calls. Nearly 60 percent of calls came between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., the hours covered by the per-diem paramedic.

The average number of calls per day is up slightly, from 1.34 in 2011 to 1.7 this year.

In addition to cutting response times, having a per-diem paramedic on duty has allowed the town to rely less on mutual aid from South Portland and other neighboring communities.

Cape Elizabeth received 12 mutual aid responses in 2011. From January to June of this year, the town received four. Cape Elizabeth provided mutual aid to other communities seven times in 2011 and seven times so far this year.

“During these six months, we have had 28 instances where more than one EMS call has been active. With the use of our existing rescue company and occasional help from our fire companies, we have been able to cover them without requesting an outside ambulance,” Gleeson wrote in his council update.

Gleeson is expected to present his update to the council on Monday.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be contacted at 791-6315 or at:

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