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First EMS Unit Arrival on Scene within 6 minutesGoal 2. A Healthy and Safe City |
Description |
The delivery of emergency medical care to victims who are not breathing and have no pulse is extremely time critical. Survival rates for cardiac arrest victims directly depend on the rapid arrival and intervention by trained emergency medical personnel. In almost every case, the sooner emergency responders arrive the better the chances are for victim survival.
In 2016 the Department implemented a new total response time benchmark. The Department’s new response benchmark is to have the first unit arrive at the scene of an EMS incident within 6 minutes or less, total response time, of time of notification at the Emergency Communication Center 90% of the time.
While many industries and organizations measure performance based on averages or what occurs 50% of the time, fire departments often measure performance at the 90th percentile, or the point that marks when an event will occur 90% of the time. Response times to emergencies are measured at the 90th percentile because of the critical nature of reaching patients and properties threatened by fire.
Analysis |
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Over the last five years the Department's response time performance has been slightly under its benchmark goal of arrival within 6 minutes or less 80% of the time. In 2017, the EMS unit arrived on scene within 6 minutes or less 46.9% of the time. The fire department did not achieve its total response time benchmark in 2017. Total response time is divided between call handling (caller notifies the Emergency Communications Center (ECC) to ECC notifies a response unit), unit turnout (unit personnel notified to unit is en route to an incident) and travel time to the incident. On average in 2017, 25% of EMS response time was spent handling a call, 20% on turnout time, and 55% on travel time.
First EMS unit arrival on scene within 6 minutes or less |