Strategic Analysis — Fire & Emergency Services in Collinsville Township

Strategic Analysis — Fire Department

The department conducted a study on the current and forecast performance of the fire and emergency services community response and coverage. The response and coverage data indicates that the some recalibration of the provision of service is needed. In addition, the data strongly indicate the need for a substation in the new development are just outside Collinsville. Three strategic goals were identified:

Build a new fire and emergency services substation on the donated parcel.

Apply for grant funding to fill the staffing and equipment gaps until alternate funding is obtained.

Establish a program of total quality improvement in the operations of the fire and emergency services departments.

The effectiveness of these strategic changes to the provision of fire and emergency services in and around the township of Collinsville will be evaluated on a defined schedule. The focus of the evaluation will continue to be response times and coverage adequacy. An additional path for development and evaluation will be the monitoring of training programs designed to create a more robust first response team in the areas of Collinsville and surrounds.

Introduction

Development in and around the township of Collinsville is inevitable and, in fact, is currently underway on the eastside of the county. As currently configured, fire and emergency services are inadequate to meet the needs of the additional people who are expected to move into the area. Current and future implementation of fire and emergency services must provide an affordable and balanced configuration of services, which ultimately must be measured in terms of response times and coverage. Several variables in the community point to the construction of a substation in the area of new development. The availability of funding for construction, equipment, and staffing is being explored, and a feasibility study is an anticipated next step. The mayor, the city council, and the residents of Collinsville must receive assurance of sufficient staff, equipment, and stations to meet the recommended NFPA 1720 staffing standards and the ISO standards of coverage for the population density, road conditions, climate, and terrain. To that end, the following presenting problems, areas of study, and recommendations are proposed.

This analysis commences with an assessment of past performance that fosters articulation of the current strategy and a forecast of future performance under the current strategy, in light of increased demand. From that base, the proposal identifies the need, nature, and speed of change that is desirable.

Problem Statements & Study Areas

1. Stakeholder Input

1.1. The fire chief is willing to expand the department.

1.2. Funds are needed to expand the fire department.

1.3. A parcel of land in the development has been donated for construction of a station.

2. Evaluation of Capability

2.1. Current issues with response times and coverage

2.2. Forecast response times and coverage with new substation

3. Funding Sources

3.1. SAFER and AFG grants for staffing plus benefits (limited to 1 — 2 years)

3.2. AFG grants available for equipment, training, other (limited to 4 years)

3.3. Property and use taxes derived from increase in residents (overlapping end of grants)

3.4. Ambulance fees diverted from town coffers directly to fire department

3.5. Ordinance fees for residents outside of the township limits (remote)

3.6. Donations of cash and materials from local citizens for construction of the new station

4. Proposed Configurations of Service

4.1. New fire station fully but modestly equipped

4.2. One additional full-time fire fighter / Emergency Medical Technician will be added

4.3. A voluntary force of fire fighters and Emergency Medical Technicians will be recruited

4.4. Volunteer firefighter recruitment in rural areas has not been successful in the past

Framework for Analysis

To add structure to this analysis and common points of referral, a Diamond-E framework was employed. A concise explanation of the analytical framework is provided to facilitate interpretation of the discussion and proposal. Briefly, the four points of the diamond represent consideration of management preferences, the organization, resources needed and available, and the strategy. The “E” point of the framework is the external environment. Criteria for good strategy are that strategy must be sustainable, unique, and have real or perceived added value. The tensions to be addressed in this analysis are as follows: Want-to-do (the preferences of management), Can-do and able-to-do (the organization, capabilities, and resources), and Need-to-do (the environment). The sweet spot where these tensions overlap is the nexus of the strategy. To further elucidate: (1) The community is requesting better response time in the rural areas surrounding the township of Collinsville (environment / need-to-do); (2) The fire department’s official position is to expand the fire department in the area to improve response times in the community (management preferences / want-to-do); (3) The fire department does not believe the response times are always what they need to be (organization and capabilities / can-do); and (4) The fire department is currently only able to respond from a single centralized location (resources / able-to-do).

Focus the Environmental Analysis

The purposes of this step in the analysis is to define the boundaries of the strategic proposals, to highlight any questions that have emerged regarding demand, supply, competition, and government, and to establish a time horizon for the analysis, if one has not yet been determined or if modifications to the time horizon are indicated or needed.

Collinsville is located on a peninsula formed by rivers on two sides and large rock out-crop mountains on the third side. The community has a population of approximately 12,000 people. The town contains three schools, one each at elementary, middle, and high school levels. A small hospital is located in the town, along with the typical array of governmental facilities and a busy downtown commercial area. Currently, fire service is provided by a fire department located near the town center. That fire department responds with 2 engines, 1 ALS ambulance, 1 BLS ambulance 1 ladder, a tanker and a brush truck. Two staff vehicles and a supply truck are also located at the department. Staffing at the fire department is as follows: A fire chief and a fire code inspector who work M-F day schedules, two fire fighters who each are on 24-48-hour shifts, and 20 paid on-call staff members. Mutual aid is located 12 miles from the local fire department at the closest point and 23 miles away at the farthest point. Call volume and a GIS map are provided in the Appendices.

Evaluation of Capability

Response time and coverage data. Response time is measured from the time emergency dispatchers receive a call to the time when the first equipment is on the scene. The public, however, clocks response time from the moment they first become aware of an emergency incident. Fire suppression time begins at the moment of ignition and runs until the fire is actually extinguished. Response time is influenced by a number of variables, including undiscovered combustion time, discovery time and discoverer, activation of 911 call processing, dispatch time, time to turnout and drive time, initial setup time and “vertical” response (time to fire location), fire-fighting (combat), and extinguishment.

According to the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), 50% of the structure ?re response times are generally less than 5 minutes, and this is regardless of the time of day, the season, or the region of the country. . The nationwide 90th percentile is less than 11 minutes for structure fires. The Collinsville response time logs show average times for fire only by the regions designated as follows: Town = 7:06 minutes; Northwest = 8:01 minutes; Northeast = 9:09 minutes; Southeast = 9:53; and North Rural = 16:27. For emergency service response times triggered by motor vehicle collisions, the response time jumps to an average of 24 minutes with injuries and 27 minutes without reports of injuries on the Interstate, and an average 6-minute response time for collisions in town. By the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) standards, all average response times in the Collinsville township and surrounding regions are higher than the national average. The response times in the rural area where the new development is underway are unacceptably high. This data confirms the concerns expressed by the Fire Chief regarding the inadequacy of the current service configuration with regard to any foreseeable growth. Coverage reports from the Collinsville Fire Department logs indicate that the bulk of the service call — upward of 90% according to the fire chief — are for ambulances, and primarily for car accidents on the Interstate and in town.

Staffing capabilities and training. The fire chief reports that staff rarely receives formal training and many have been unable to maintain their formal certifications as a result. The ambulances typically make runs with one staff person and are joined on the scene by other staff as they are available. The chief argues that the fundamental problem is getting paid on-call staff to incidents in the remote area. The need for training has been established and recruitment to increase the ranks of on-call members of the response team needs to be bolstered.

Funding sources. The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergence Response Grants (SAFER) was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations in order to help them increase the number of trained, “front line” firefighters available in their communities. The goal of SAFER is to enhance the local fire departments’ abilities to comply with staffing, response and operational standards established by the NFPA and OSHA (NFPA 1710 and/or NFPA 1720 and OSHA 1910.134).

Strategy Development

The recommendations emerging from the study are as follows:

1. Build a new fire and emergency services substation on the donated parcel.

2. Apply for grant funding to fill the staffing gap until alternate funding is obtained.

3. Establish a program of total quality improvement in the operations of the fire and emergency services departments.

Plans to build the new substation on the donated parcel are ready to go forward. An ad hoc committee will utilize the strategic analysis as a foundation for implementation. Pursuit of funding will be directed by the fire chief and a subcommittee of the capital expenditures and construction committee. In this way, the primary stakeholders may work in concert to accomplish the mayor’s and the city council’s goals for fire and emergency services in the county.

Test of the Environment — Strategy Linkage

The purposes of this step in the analysis is to test how well the proposal anticipates the challenges and the opportunities of the change model, and to identify the impact of the strategic proposal on supply, demand, competition, and government.

The change management model provides several strategies for moving people toward change, including: “(1) Education and communication; (2) Participation; (3) Facilitation and support; (4) Negotiation; (5) Manipulation; and (6) Cooptation and coercion” (Robbins et al. 2004). Once the decision to implement a proposal has been made, the initiative moves to building commitment and developing the required capabilities.

Stakeholder Input

The fire chief is willing to expand the department, but he argues that funds are needed to expand the fire department. A parcel of land in the development has been donated for construction of a station. The next step is to identify funding sources and write applications for grants. The fire chief responded to the Mayor’s questions about staffing, equipment, training needs, sources of revenue, and the like. However, the fire chief’s responses were cursory and indicated that he did not take the proposal to build a new fire station seriously. His response could fairly be categorized as gatekeeping, a strategy that maintains his status as the person who is in charge of fire and emergency services in Collinsville township and surrounds.

Change management strategy. The role of the fire chief is pivotal to the success of the project to establish a new substation in the development located in the remote part of the county. The change management strategy proposed to smooth his feelings of displacement and to break down his resistance to the necessary changes is cooptation. Cooptation is a medley of manipulation and participation. Through the efforts of cooptation, resistance can essentially be bought off by promoting a resistant leader as a key member of the change decision and actions. The fire chief will be led to believe that his advice and experience are being tapped in order to make better decisions about the change proposals, but in effect, it is the endorsement of the fire chief that is being sought.

Action: The fire chief will be put in charge of researching and applying for the SAFER grant for additional staffing. This strategy aligns with the fire chief’s perceptions of an ill-staffed and understaffed fire department. Minimally, the application to SAFER will request one additional full-time fire fighter / Emergency Medical Technician and funds to help recruit more candidates for a voluntary force of fire fighters and Emergency Medical Technicians.

Action: The fire chief will also be asked to lead a team of people who will complete the AFG grant with the goal of obtaining personal protective equipment (PPEs), equipment, and training for both old and new staff members.

Total Quality Improvement Plan

As is sometimes the case, when one path is pursued, another is revealed. During the course of conducting an assessment of the operational efficiency of the fire department, the need for a quality improvement program that would encompass recruitment, training, and operations emerged. As a result of this work, a third strategic goal was added to the strategy analysis. That third goal is to establish a program of total quality improvement in the operations of the fire and emergency services departments.

Change management strategy. Although the fire chief has been in his position for about two years, he claims not to have much knowledge about a number of specific and relevant aspects of his position responsibilities. The change management strategy that will be used in the endeavor to implement the third recommendation is education and communication. The informed opinion is that the fire chief will embrace the opportunity to develop a quality improvement system for the fire and emergency services department as a rare opportunity to showcase the capabilities of his staff and of the team.

Action: The fire chief will be given a membership in the American Society for Quality (ASQ) as an incentive to learn more about quality programs. The expectation of the committee is that the fire chief will delegate his fire code inspector to implement the quality improvement program since the fire code inspector is cognizant of complex standards, the importance of compliance, and strategies to bring about necessary positive change.

Forecast Performance

The purposes of this step in the analysis are to determine if the proposal will meet its goals, and to enable scenario planning to explore whether implementation of the proposal will lead to the desired results. Using the response time data and the call logs, response time reduction strategies and coverage plans can be applied to scenarios that detail the new configuration for fire and emergency services in Collinsville and the surrounding regions. The committee is currently working on this data and will forward an addendum to the city council and the mayor’s office upon completion.

Rank Against Other Proposals

The purpose of this step in the analysis is to consider the proposal in light of alternative proposals. This step of the strategic proposal comes into play only if the original plan is not acceptable to the city council and the mayor. At such time, should the action be warranted, the committee will revisit the recommendations and proposed project plans, offering the opportunity for a follow-up bidders’ competition.

References

American Quality Society (2012). Retrieved http://asq.org/index.aspx

Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG). (2012)..FEMA. Retrieved http://www.fema.gov/firegrants/afggrants/FAQs2011.shtm#topic1

Cossan, M.M. And Bapuji, H.B. (2010). Examining the link between knowledge management, organizational learning, and performance. [Paper presented at the Organizational Learning and Knowledge 5th International Conference, May 30 — June 2, 2003]. Retrieved http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/olkc/archive/olk5/papers / paper10.pdf

Crossan, M.M., Fry, Joseph N., and Killing, J.P. (2004). Strategic Analysis and Action (6th ed.) New York, NY: Prentice Hall

Crossan, M.M., Lane, H.W., and White, R.E. (1999). An organizational learning framework: From intuition to institution. Academy of Management Review 24 (3), 522-537.

Diamond E & Strategy-Enviro Analysis. [lecture notes, Business Administration 4810]. Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada: British Columbia Institute of Technology Retrieved http://faculty.bcitbusiness.ca/kevinw/4800/documents/mylec-1-Diamond-E-Strategy-Enviro-09-handouts.pdf

Overcoming resistance to change. (2011). Exploring HR Management. [In Sobbins, S. Organizational Behavior, (12th ed.). New York, NY: Prentice Hall., Retrieved http://www.explorehr.org/articles/Organization_Analysis/Overcoming_Resistance_to_Change.html

Robbins, S.B., Lauver, K., Le, H., David, D., Langley, R., & Carlstrom, A. (2004). Do psychosocial and study skill factors predict college outcomes? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 261-288. Retrieved

Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER). (2012). Retrieved http://www.fema.gov/firegrants/safer/index.shtm

Structure fire response time.(2006). Topical Fire Research Services, 5 (7). Retrieved http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/tfrs/v5i7.pdf

Appendices

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