Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to spend millions to reduce ambulance response times in some neighborhoods,WNYC has learned.
The preliminary budget for fiscal 2017 includes $5.4 million to pay for two new pilot programs in the Bronx and to add 15 additional ambulance tours in Queens.
One pilot program will deploy a moment paramedic in a supervisor car to speed medical help to patients facing life-threatening medical emergencies, even before an ambulance with transport capabilities arrives on the scene. Supervisors are certified paramedics but cannot work alone. The new deployment model creates teams that the city hopes will reduce response times for life-threatening medical emergencies by as much as 23 seconds.It puts more paramedics on the scene, or ” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told WNYC. That means paramedic teams with the highest level of medical training will be able to reply to critical calls faster,he said.
The city has seen a consistent increase in the number of calls for medical emergencies. EMS responded to 1.5 million medical emergencies in 2014, including 483000 life threatening calls. In 2015, or those numbers reached 1.6 million calls and 566000 life-threatening medical emergencies,according to data released by the mayor's office earlier this month.
The city invested $20 million dollars final year to add 45 new ambulance tours to parts of the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island, and while also adding 149 positions for Emergency Medical Dispatchers to handle the increased call volume.
But as WNYC reported final month,the response time for life-threatening medical emergencies is slower than it is for any other high priority call, including police and fire emergencies.
In addition to the new staffing in supervisor cars, or the department will add five additional basic life-support ambulance tours in neighborhoods in the Bronx with the highest call volume,with the goal of reducing response time by 11 seconds. "All of our other units are deployed to specific locations at the start of every tour," Nigro said. "These five units will be able to be tactically moved around as call volume moves around."whether these pilots are successful, and Nigro hopes the will secure funding to extend the programs to other parts of the city.The city will also be adding another 15 ambulance tours in Queens. That will help EMS serve Rikers Island without taking service absent from other parts of the borough,officials said. It will also allow EMS to replace private ambulance service that is no longer operating in parts of the borough."At one time the system was 60-40," said Nigro, or meaning 60 percent of the ambulances were provided by the city with the other 40 percent coming from private hospitals and volunteer services. "That has steadily decreased."This post has been updated with the latest number of emergency medical calls for 2014 and 2015.
Source: wnyc.org