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Organization
Provides fire suppression, rescue, emergency medical services
Serves City of Odessa, Texas and Ector County — an area of 904 square miles with about 200,000 residents
Nine stations with ongoing expansion plans
Challenge
Complex dispatch protocols with 1,500+ call types created 3+ minute delays before units could be dispatched, adding unnecessary time to total response performance.
Solution
Used response data to pinpoint root causes of dispatch delays
Identified opportunities to streamline dispatch protocol
Tracked real-time impact of process changes on call handling times
Used visualizations to communicate improvements to stakeholders and keep the momentum going
Odessa Fire Rescue (OFR)
How Odessa Cut 2 Minutes Off their Response Time with Darkhorse Response
Odessa Fire Rescue (OFR) turned to Darkhorse Emergency to help identify and solve critical response bottlenecks that were adding precious minutes to their emergency response times. Using Darkhorse Response platform capabilities, OFR pinpointed the problem, redesigned their dispatch protocol, and cut 2 minutes from their total response times. Using the platform, they are continuing the momentum to bring their response times closer to NFPA standards.
Working The Data
OFR used the Diagnostics tool in Darkhorse Response to pinpoint and visualize where time was being lost in the process. The data clearly showed that the bottleneck occurred during the call processing, specifically the lengthy ProQA questioning phase before any units were dispatched. This evidence gave OFR's command staff the confidence to redesign their dispatch protocol.
Simplifying The System
Rather than navigating 1,500 call types, OFR condensed their initial dispatch to just five simple codes that any call-taker could quickly identify:
- Hot engine and ambulance
- Hot ambulance only
- Cold ambulance only
- Full response with a battalion chief
- Motor Vehicle Collision response
As soon as the call-taker determines whether the need is medical, they immediately dispatch using one of these five codes. The complete ProQA questioning happens while units are already responding, with detailed information sent to crews' mobile devices en route.
“We want the same information captured, we just moved the window from when it's captured. The 60 to 300 seconds en route can be spent gathering blood pressure, blood sugar, medical history. We don't need to know that when we're running to the truck. We need to know that before we walk in the house.”
Real-Time Validation & Momentum
Darkhorse tracked the improvement in real-time, showing both 50th and 90th percentile performance increases. This allowed OFR to demonstrate progress to their dispatch center and management, using encouragement rather than criticism to drive continued improvement.
The data also revealed that outliers in the last 10% (language barriers, hysterical callers) still drag the average up, helping OFR identify where additional targeted improvements could be made.
"The number I was most impressed by was the 50th percentile. And that showed the change even more drastically in my mind. So it really showed that the outliers that we have in that last 10% are really dragging our time up."
The Result
Two minutes faster. Potentially more lives saved.
The improvement was immediate and measurable. OFR cut 2 full minutes from their call handling time, bringing their 90th percentile down to 1:40, and the 50th percentile improvement was even more dramatic.
The 2-minute improvement translates to real lives saved. Based on Odessa's incident mix and established mortality rate changes per 60 seconds, the faster dispatch times are estimated to prevent 97 deaths annually across overdose poisonings, hemorrhagic lacerations, strokes, traumatic injuries, and cardiac arrests.
To put that in perspective: achieving the same 20% performance improvement through infrastructure alone would require building more than 10 new fire stations, a capital investment of over $100 million. OFR achieved it by rethinking their dispatch protocol.
Seconds matter. 120 of them definitely help. There's going to be more people alive and houses standing up because of that.
This was all made understandable and initiated by our partnership with Darkhorse.
With Darkhorse Response, OFR:
Reduced call handling time by 2 minutes through evidence-based protocol redesign
Achieved 1:40 call handling at 90th percentile, approaching NFPA's 1-minute standard
Used real-time data to build confidence and buy-in from dispatch center and leadership
Identified remaining opportunities through percentile analysis showing outlier patterns
Established data-driven decision making culture that continues to drive improvements
Looking Ahead
OFR continues to use Darkhorse Response platform daily for operational insights and is expanding into:
- Station location optimization with Deployment for future OFR growth
- Unit capability analysis for response planning
- Integration with First Arriving for station displays and public transparency
- Ongoing monitoring to reach NFPA's 1-minute call handling standard
Based on the success of the Response Module, OFR also just signed up for the Risk module, with which they will be able to map risk across the community in a living CRA.
