Ambulances have taken nearly 10 minutes on average to respond to the most serious medical emergencies this year, according to first-ever measures that start the moment a call is placed to 911.
The ambulance response rate — which no longer excludes the time it takes callers to be routed to a Fire Department dispatcher — was 9 minutes and 42 seconds in January and February, officials said Thursday.
Legislators said they were alarmed at how much longer the outcomes were compared with the old method of reporting — which would have put those same response rates at 7 minutes and 8 seconds.
“I’m troubled by the new numbers I’ve seen,” Elizabeth Crowley (D-Queens), chair of the City Council Fire and Criminal Justice Services Committee said at a budget hearing.
“Nine minutes and [42] seconds for life-threatening emergencies is too high.”
The numbers also showed that response rates have slowed by 21 seconds on average during the first two months of 2014, when compared with all of last year.
The average response rate for medical emergencies in 2013, using the old measure, was 6 minutes, 47 seconds.
Fire Department officials attributed longer responses to harsh winter weather, which caused call volumes to spike considerably.
FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano said that he was eager to work on reducing the processing times of phone calls, and that efforts that began under the Bloomberg administration have been renewed by Mayor de Blasio.
“The new administration wanted to take a fresh look at it and see what we think — both fire and police — what are our concerns, what do we think would be the best possible way to reduce the processing time, which would reduce our response time,” he said.
“We are in ongoing talks.”