Data-driven strategies for first responder safety

• Data analysis helps agencies identify areas of improvement and opportunities for collaboration.

• Agencies can reduce workloads and create more impactful strategies by fostering relationships with private organizations, such as hospitals.

• Strong data bolsters legislative efforts that support first responders.

• Internal data informs wellness initiatives, such as peer support systems, and ensures no personnel are left behind.

First responders — including fire-rescue, paramedics, emergency management services (EMS), and law enforcement personnel — face life-threatening risks every day. Beyond line-of-duty dangers, first responders see higher rates of strokes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, plus mental health challenges such as burnout, PTSD, and depression.

Public safety leaders must seek out proactive solutions to support their personnel. To do so, they need to make those invisible risks visible. Robust data provides tangible evidence of unseen threats, bolstering legislative efforts, informing peer support programs, and enabling beneficial partnerships.

To demonstrate the power of data to drive wellness initiatives, we co-hosted a virtual roundtable with FireRescue1 featuring two speakers with firsthand experience on legislative action, interagency collaboration, and internal wellness efforts: Deputy Fire Chief Darin Wallentine of the Sarasota County Fire Department (SCFD) and Deputy Chief-Paramedic Peder Humlen-Ahearn of Ada County Paramedics.

Keep reading to learn how you can harness and action your agency’s data to promote safety and wellness.

The role of data in first responder wellness

Your data is your story, Deputy Fire Chief Wallentine said. Quality data tells you what’s going on, how you need to respond, and how to advocate for your department needs. Wallentine truly understood the power of data when COVID hit, forcing SCFD to navigate unprecedented situations on the fly.

To protect their personnel and their families, SCFD needed to harness incoming data, such as 911 calls. The department created heat maps to identify high-risk areas — such as assisted living and nursing facilities — and inform its response. For example, personnel responding to those areas increased their PPE to limit their chance of exposure.

To create protocols like this, agencies need quality data, and leaders need to know how to apply it, Deputy Chief-Paramedic Humlen-Ahearn said. Having better data hygiene and robust analysis methods allows agencies to properly examine areas of improvement, like response times, staffing models, and resource management. 

“When we're looking at health and wellness, and we're looking at ways to improve not only your operational efficiency, but what's better for your people, you have to ask the right question,” Humlen-Ahearn said. “And once you get the right question, you have to be able to answer the right question.”

Data methods matter

Data management and analysis can help you uncover and answer those critical questions. But many agencies struggle with outdated methods of collecting information. And even when agencies have plenty of data, they can be hindered by inconsistent data analysis methods or siloed data stored across incompatible systems, Humlen-Ahearn said. 

In Ada County, learning how to access, integrate, and analyze data unlocked new solutions — taking leaders from anecdotes to informed action. 

“What we've done is take all the data that we have from all the disparate systems, and essentially put them together to actually make data-driven decisions, not only in operations, but employee health and well-being and peer support,” Humlen-Ahearn said.

Data informs collaboration

Eliminating data silos within an agency also makes it easier to collaborate with other agencies — which Humlen-Ahearn said is now necessary. But often, critical data is fractured across multiple systems or departments. To communicate effectively, agencies must create a shared operating picture.

“When we have a hard time speaking the same language, a lot gets lost in the translation,” Humlen-Ahearn said. “Which really takes away from our ability to work collectively together, to be able to provide those insights and move forward to a solution that benefits everybody in the community.”

Partnering with private organizations

While police, fire, EMS, and dispatch are obvious partners, agencies’ stakeholders go beyond public safety, Humlen-Ahearn said. They also benefit from relationships with private organizations, such as hospitals. But to start those conversations, you need solid data.

“When you go out and you start building these stakeholder engagements, it's really important for you to also be able to provide data,” Humlen-Ahearn said. “Then we create the dialogue, and we can get further than we were before, because everyone was in their own respective lanes.”

Data sharing paid off for Ada County during COVID. At the time, first responders were strained with an influx of 911 calls, while hospitals were overburdened. They both needed a solution, Humlen-Ahearn said. Agency leaders leveraged relationships with partner hospitals to gather COVID outcome data, build a surveillance mechanism, and develop a playbook for pandemic-related 911 calls.

Instead of sending multiple agencies to a single non-emergency call, leaders found ways to allocate resources more efficiently. They also collaborated on diversion programs, providing at-home resources to citizens so they could receive care without overwhelming local hospitals.

Sarasota County saw similar success with a local hospital foundation, Wallentine said. The agency noticed certain individuals frequently called 911 to help with non-emergency issues that would be better addressed by other social services. SCFD worked with case managers, nurse practitioners, and other personnel to identify those callers and connect them with tangible resources, such as Meals on Wheels or community aging organizations. 

Using the community risk reduction model and partnering with agencies outside the 911 system is a great way to improve outcomes for individuals who need meaningful support, Wallentine said.

“Let's put them in touch with organizations that actually can fix the problem, not just shuffle the chairs around,” Wallentine said.

Working with legislators to protect first responders

One of the most concrete ways to support first responders is presumptive legislation, which provides pathways and resources to first responders who need medical care.

Agency leaders can translate their personal experience into persuasive pitches that move the needle forward. It’s important to stay engaged, Wallentine said. In his experience working with Arizona legislators, he’s learned that leaders must always be prepared to deliver a high-level elevator pitch that gets the message across.

You also need the right data to back up your request — and you never want to be unprepared for legislators’ questions, Humlen-Ahearn said. 

“You'll lose whatever headway that you had, and you're starting all over again,” Humlen-Ahearn said. “It's really important that you look at: What's the right question? How do we answer the question in a way that is going to make sense and not confuse whoever you're talking to?”

Those questions typically come down to cost, logistics, and timeline. Think through potential roadblocks in advance, and seek out contextualized data that tells your story.

For example, if you’re advocating for cancer-focused presumptive legislation, you might track the number of fires personnel have responded to, the air quality and temperatures on days they worked, and turnout usage, Humlen-Ahearn said. Together, those layered pieces of information tell a cohesive story that can push forward life-saving legislation. 

“It's synthesizing your data that you have available and trying to come up with various solutions, as well as alternatives,” Humlen-Ahearn said.

Peer support of first responder health

Internal data can inform wellness initiatives, such as peer support programs. While peer support isn’t a one-off solution, Wallentine said, it provides a critical bridge between individuals and professional care, such as behavioral health specialists.

Agencies need to create a trusting, empathetic environment that encourages individuals to seek confidential support, Wallentine said. Leaders need to put the right people in place — people who have walked the walk.

“In peer support, it is vitally important that we have not only individuals who have a passion for it, but [who are] the right fit for the peer supporter,” Wallentine said. 

These systems must also consider that trauma might not stem from a single event; it’s often a culmination throughout someone’s career. Too often, those individuals get lost, Humlen-Ahearn said. But agencies have all the data they need to identify them.

Ada County Paramedics leveraged data integration technology to build an in-house, automated wellness report that removes manual effort, guesswork, and potential for human oversight. The platform ingests information from the agency’s patient care report (PCR) and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems, layering those data points with the severity of calls. For example, the system can: 

• Send certain calls to peer support

• Flag paramedics that responded to multiple critical calls in a short period of time 

• Track frequent triggers that can build up over time 

Those metrics are translated to dynamic dashboards, providing continual updates on personnel well-being. Peer support teams also receive a report each morning. 

“I think there is a huge opportunity with the data that's available right now to be able to help assist our first responders, especially as it relates to peer support,” Humlen-Ahearn said.

Support first responder safety and wellness

Data powers public safety efforts, supports legislation, reinforces internal support systems, and creates opportunities for collaboration. Starting a data analysis program at your agency doesn’t have to be daunting: Humlen-Ahearn recommends reaching out to a trustworthy vendor to understand your existing data capabilities and how to maximize your impact at any scale.

Peregrine, a scalable data integration solution, provides a powerful foundation for well-rounded wellness initiatives. Peregrine ingests and analyzes your agency’s data — such as PCR, CAD, and workload data — to automate wellness reports, alerts, and dynamic dashboards. With granular user controls and compliant data sharing capabilities, it’s easy to collaborate with partner agencies. And Peregrine’s unified search makes it easy to locate, manipulate, and visualize data that backs up legislative efforts.

Watch the full webinar on FireRescue1's website. If you’re ready to harness your data to support your personnel, request a demo today.