CRANBERRY TWP — A pilot program and partnership between the township's fire and EMS organizations has been successful thus far, officials said.

For the past several weeks, an ambulance has been housed at the fire department's Haine fire station. According to Ted Fessides, EMS department chief, the move is part of a 90-day pilot program to see if having an ambulance stationed away from its headquarters will help improve response time.

Fessides said when the department moved operations from Thomson Park Drive to Route 19 in 2013, response times overall increased by about a minute. He said in making the move, officials didn't give enough consideration to the impact on response times as they should have.

“There's no true correlation between response times and better health outcomes, but when you need an ambulance, you want it now,” he said.

Fessides said that after discovering the call time increase, officials began looking at where call volume is the largest. He said the majority of calls typically come from the southwestern portion of the township.

He said at the same time this research was occurring, fire department officials were working on a renovation project at both their Haine and Route 19 stations, with expansion opening up additional space. Fessides said he and fire officials worked out the details of the program and implemented it earlier this month.

Thus far, he said, the move appears to have helped and he expects that trend to continue. He said once the 90 days is completed, officials will decide whether to continue it permanently.

“I have a feeling (response times) are going to go down,” he said.

Dan Santoro, assistant township manager, said the partnership has had “excellent” results thus far and makes perfect sense in working to reduce response times.

Fessides agreed.

“It is all about having locations that are strategic to the community,” he said.