Will a Florida county send a paramedic drone to treat your 911 emergency? What to know

Victoria Villanueva-Marquez, Miami Herald on Dec 18, 2024

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MIAMI — More than seven months after Manatee County launched a pilot program for a drone that can quickly respond to medical emergencies, 911 dispatchers have yet to use it.

The program, which is a partnership between Manatee County government, Tampa General Hospital and Archer First Response Systems, aims to deploy a drone in situations where the drone could arrive ahead of paramedics and allow a caller to begin giving aid with a defibrillator, a tourniquet, or naloxone — an opioid-overdose antidote — while receiving instructions from a 911 dispatcher.

“This is an amazing opportunity to be on the cutting edge of technology in emergency response,” Manatee County Commissioner Mike Rahn said ahead of the program’s launch in May. “We are excited that this first-of-its-kind program is taking flight first here in Manatee County.”

An ambulance with an EMS crew would still head to the scene, but the drone’s early arrival could make a life-saving difference, officials say.

“There is a gap in timely response to time-sensitive situations, whether it be cardiac arrest, an overdose or severe bleeding,” said James Crutchfield, the county’s EMS chief. “The average response time for an ambulance is somewhere between eight and nine minutes. When a drone can get to you in two minutes, it could mean the difference between life and death for someone’s family member.”

Gordon Folkes, the CEO and founder of Archer First Response Systems, said 911 dispatchers once tried to send the drone to a caller, but it didn’t pass pre-flight safety checks because of a severe thunderstorm.

The county, which pays $1 a month for the program, houses the drone at the EMS Lakewood Ranch Station.

Will drone be used for medical emergencies?

In the first phase of the pilot program, the drone is available for use from sunup to sundown and covers about seven square miles. Folkes said he expects the drone to respond to more calls when the program grows in the coming months.

“While the system hasn’t yet been deployed, it has been a useful tool on standby ready for deployment should a citizen need immediate support,” Folkes said. “Phase 1 of the operation has done a good job of preparing the Manatee County dispatch team to start to incorporate this new type of infrastructure into day-to-day dispatch operations.”

County officials previously said they would spend a year evaluating the “performance and effectiveness” of the drone program to determine whether it can be used to assist residents in different areas.

In the second phase of the pilot program, the drone is expected to be available 24 hours a day and cover about 35 square miles. Folkes said he expects the drone to respond to roughly 30 cardiac arrest calls a year.