Emergency Services??? (Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano: insurance, house, transfer)

[UnfairPark]

I wanted to share some food for thought with our posters. I was attending a brunch this afternoon and one guest menutioned that he just got relocated here and his home search is on. When asked about what must haves do you have on top of your list? He surprised us all by mentioning that distance from a major hospital, a police station and a fire station are very important to him.

His extended family has had experiences where lives were lost because of distance from essential services. He said he can compromise on anything but this. All guests realized that we worry about such unimportant things when picking our homes but never consider what really matters. With multiple mortals living in a home, anyone can need any of these services anytime and minutes can be critical in saving our loved ones.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

I wanted to share some food for thought with our posters. I was attending a brunch this afternoon and one guest menutioned that he just got relocated here and his home search is on. When asked about what must haves do you have on top of your list? He surprised us all by mentioning that distance from a major hospital, a police station and a fire station are very important to him.

His extended family has had experiences where lives were lost because of distance from essential services. He said he can compromise on anything but this. All guests realized that we worry about such unimportant things when picking our homes but never consider what really matters. With multiple mortals living in a home, anyone can need any of these services anytime and minutes can be critical in saving our loved ones.

We considered all of that.
We live in Dallas:
1. We are very close to a Level 1 Trauma Center and ER, it's staffed all the time. Further, we are vaguely equidistant to 4 ERs.

2. We have a Fire-Rescue Station about 1,100 feet away and another about less than a mile away.

3. We have private security here - an off duty uniformed DPD officer in a DPD squad car patrolling maybe 80% of the time.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by EDS_

We considered all of that.
We live in Dallas:
1. We are very close to a Level 1 Trauma Center and ER, it's staffed all the time. Further, we are vaguely equidistant to 4 ERs.

2. We have a Fire-Rescue Station about 1,100 feet away and another about less than a mile away.

3. We have private security here - an off duty uniformed DPD officer in a DPD squad car patrolling maybe 80% of the time.

Good for you. These things become even more important if one has little kids, serious ailments or older parents but to be realistic, anyone can need any of these services any minute. This time we got lucky to be in Plano near it all but as I'm getting old myself so intend to consciously look for next home near these services when we downsize.

[MurphyPl1]

Its not that hard to find. All of the popular suburbs have good response times and an appropriate level of police and fire stations and substations. And appropriate level of staffing. Access to decent hospitals is not an issue with the number that are scattered around the area.

[UnfairPark]

Originally Posted by MurphyPl1

Its not that hard to find. All of the popular suburbs have good response times and an appropriate level of police and fire stations and substations. And appropriate level of staffing. Access to decent hospitals is not an issue with the number that are scattered around the area.

It is easy to find in big wealthy suburbs but not easy in every area. When seconds matter, charm of living in secluded rural areas can be a lethal charm.

Even in popular areas response time in Highland Park is much faster than Dallas or Farmersville and someone living 3 minute away from a hospital or fire station is likely to find help faster than someone 15 minutes away.

[stephwin]

Originally Posted by MurphyPl1

Access to decent hospitals is not an issue with the number that are scattered around the area.

I was actually surprised to find that this isn't necessarily true. I mean, if my kid breaks an arm or needs stitches, I'm literally falling over places to take them. But other issues? Not so much.

I was surprised at my pediatrician's advice about my youngest a few months ago. I live in far NW Frisco. My youngest was 7 weeks old and came down with RSV. That can be particularly dangerous in an infant that young. She told me if she started to having breathing issues, to take her to Children's Plano. She told me flat out, "Do not take her to Baylor Frisco or any standalone ERs in the area. They will only transfer her to Children's and you'll be charged a huge ambulance fee. They are not equipped to handle young babies."

Both my girls were born at Baylor Frisco and we had great experiences and they were both born healthy, but if they would've had anything somewhat seriously wrong they would've immediately been transferred to a different hospital with a higher NICU level. Until recently, Baylor Frisco was a level II and Plano Presby is a level III. So I would've been stuck in a hospital in Frisco while my kids were in a different hospital in a different city. And if something was gravely wrong, they would've been sent to Dallas.

Final story, but my best friend's daughter fell at a pool party and hit her head hard enough that she lost consciousness and started seizing. The ambulance took her to Children's in Dallas and they live up in Frisco by me. I realize these aren't normal, everyday occurrences but for the less routine injuries/issues, sometimes you have to go quite a distance to receive care.

[stephwin]

Originally Posted by UnfairPark

It is easy to find in big wealthy suburbs but not easy in every area. When seconds matter, charm of living in secluded rural areas can be a lethal charm.

I grew up in Prosper and at the time we only had a volunteer fire department and our home owner's insurance rates definitely reflected that. It went down drastically once a few guys were hired full-time.

My mom was so excited when we bought our house in Frisco and there was a fire station less than a mile away. She kept going on and on about how my insurance rates were going to be so low because it was X many miles away. Apparently you pay a higher premium if a fire station isn't close by.

[TheOverdog]

I personally grew up in a small town and the nearest legit hospital was 65 miles away and the fire department was all volunteer, and never knew anyone who truly suffered due to the lack of those services, so I don't place super high value on them. I don't want to cut their funding or anything, but wouldn't choose my house based on them. I'm glad I don't live in a small town for many other reasons, but access to hospitals and fire stations aren't among them.

Fire fighters in cities barely even respond to fires, in that actually fighting a fire is like 20% of their job - the other 80% is dealing with car accidents on freeways, which the design of Dallas amplifies. Just because these stats are fresh - the city of Plano fire department responded to only 384 fires in 2016, and 16,500 car accidents. They responded to 5X as many false alarm fires as actual fires.

My family has actually had many conversations about that - that small-towners must self-select for relatively independent/less risk taking/whatever, and that people who need those services more regularly move away.

[TeamLynn]

I think you pick Hospital number 1....few of those.
Police station #2...but responses don't come from the police station...they're on patrol.
You might look at response times vs locations.
I would think the smaller more affluent cities might have better response times.
Places like Flower Mound, Grapevine.
Fire stations to me are not really a consideration.
There will be a fire station in any of those places that is an appropriate distance.
Fire stations want fast response times.
You could probably get response times from the department for both fire and police.
I'm sure it is something they track.
i would not pick a big city like Dallas or Fort Worth. I would think their police response times are horrible compared to the smaller cities.
You could also pick a really small place like Dalworthington Gardens or River Oaks or Park Cities. I bet their response times are really good.

[UnfairPark]

I guess more than size of the city it depends upon how many fire stations, major hospitals and police units you have in your area. Plano is big but there are 14 fully equipped/ fully staffed fire stations and we just approved funds for a specialized firefighter training facility of our own.

Police has main office, academy, sub offices and units petrol every area.

While there is no shortage of clinics, doctors offices, small surgery centers, ERs etc, we do have Children's Plano, Medical Center of Plano, Plano Presbyterian, Baylor Heart that are world class and full service.

Most people don't often get into emergencies needing these services but we can't ignore value of having these nearby. Your mileage may vary but being a mortal, I would rather pick one near a hospital than one with my dream kitchen and community club.