Extending the maximum allowable response time for EMSA ambulances responding to life-threatening emergencies from eight minutes and 59 seconds to 10 minutes and 59 seconds would not adversely affect patient care, the agency’s medical director said Thursday.
Speaking during a City Council committee meeting, Dr. Jeffrey Goodloe said the first five minutes after a major medical emergency - such as a stroke or heart attack — is when medical care is most vital and that that care would continue to be provided by fire department paramedics.
In addition, Goodloe said, EMSA dispatchers are trained to instruct callers on how to provide emergency care such as CPR.
He said changing the response time requirement would decrease the likelihood of accidents by EMSA crews without compromising patient care.
“That’s what these response times are about,” Goodloe said. “They are about ensuring that patients continue to get the best care humanly possible, at the same time recognizing that this is an inherently dangerous practice of medicine.”
Several councilors question whether adding two minutes to response times would mean two more minutes of work for firefighters.
Goodloe said the request to lengthen the response time does not mean ambulances would take that time.
It is simply a request to change the standard by which the ambulance provider would be contractually obligated to arrive, Goodloe said.
He said the proposal would not affect firefighters’ workload because typically “they’re leaving simultaneously” with EMSA crews after a patient has been treated.
EMSA’s board of trustees awarded a five-year, $247 million contract to American Medical Response last month, lengthening the maximum response times for EMSA ambulances responding to life-threatening emergencies by two minutes and for ambulances responding to nonlife-threatening emergencies by 12 minutes starting Nov. 1.
The new contract sets the benchmark for life-threatening emergencies, designated Priority 1 calls, at 10 minutes and 59 seconds. The previous maximum time allowable for Priority 1 calls was 8 minutes and 59 seconds.
EMSA’s website lists its average response time - meaning the time it takes to receive and input a call, dispatch an ambulance and arrive at the scene — as “less than six minutes.” Monthly data for the agency’s Tulsa Division show that the average time for the most recent 12 months available, July 2012 through this June, was six minutes and 40 seconds.
EMSA CEO Steve Williamson told councilors that EMSA’s proposal to change its mileage rate from $9 to $12 would have no effect on customers covered under the city’s TotalCare program.
The City Council must make the new response time a part of city ordinances.
Oklahoma City has already done so, Williamson said.
The council will revisit the issue again in September.
EMSA
Councilors suggest that it puts additional work on the Fire Department’s first responders.
