Bill Humes, training officer with Cranberry Township EMS, talks to residents Tuesday night during the Coffee with the Manager event.

CRANBERRY TWP — Common misconceptions about emergency medical services were debunked Tuesday night, as residents gathered at the township's EMS station for the monthly Coffee with the Manager event.

Why don't ambulances always use lights and sirens? Why does it take so long for the ambulance to respond to a call? These questions and more were answered by Jeff Kelly, Cranberry Township EMS executive director.

The informational event was held at the EMS station in part to celebrate National EMS Week, which is May 20 to 26 this year.

Jerry Andree, the township manager, said there are only two services Cranberry has to provide to its residents — a fire department and emergency medical services.

“Cranberry expects the best from its public safety agencies,” Andree said.

In 2017, Cranberry EMS answered 4,053 calls and awarded 2,198 continuing education hours.

Following the organization's mission statement “to preserve life and promote health and safety in our community,” the EMS offers a number of public health programs like its CPR and first aid training and child car seat fitting programs. It trained 522 civilians in CPR and first aid, and installed 203 child safety seats in 2017.

Kelly said while he gets a lot of positive feedback, people still call to complain about why it took the ambulance crew so long to arrive at the scene, especially when the patient is relatively close to the station.

In addition to dealing with heavy traffic and inattentive drivers on the roads, Kelly explained that the 911 dispatchers need a few minutes to code the emergency calls before notifying the appropriate responders.

“Those calls take time to process,” he said.

When a person calls 911, the call is coded based on the symptoms and other information given to the dispatcher. The code tells the EMS workers responding how urgent or severe the situation is.

While this takes time, it helps the EMS personnel to respond the right way by sending the right people and the right equipment to handle the situation. Once the call comes in, Cranberry EMS has 90 seconds to leave the building, Kelly said.

Contrary to what people see in films and television, ambulance crews do not always respond with lights and sirens or by running up to the scene once they arrive.

“EMS people do not run,” he said. “The reason is when you run, you lose focus of what you're going to do. Or you could trip.”

Kelly said driving with lights and sirens saves 43 seconds to 1 minute 46 seconds, which is not enough time to change the outcome in a medical emergency. At the same time, the risk of being involved in an accident en route while using lights and sirens goes up fourfold. Kelly said he leaves it up to the discretion of the ambulance driver to judge each situation.

When responding to a scene, people might see the ambulance taking its time to turn around and get lined up with the curb. The crew wants to be able to leave directly and all of the equipment is on the passenger side of the truck, Kelly said.