The time it takes for an ambulance to respond to an emergency call is a key measure of a community’s public safety status.
News that the formula to calculate Denver ambulance response times may have been fiddled with — regardless of the reason or who approved the change — is troubling.
City leaders and top administrators at Denver Health, which runs the ambulance service, need to investigate whether there has been a true deterioration of response times and why. We’re told an audit is underway, and that’s a good thing.
In our view, response time begins when a caller places a 911 call and ends when help arrives on the scene.
But a change was made to that reasonable formula in 2004, according to stories published by both Westword and The Denver Post.
Instead, the clock doesn’t begin running until an ambulance is free to respond, which could be minutes after a call for help is placed.
It is unclear exactly why such a change was made and who approved it.
It’s pertinent to note that the city’s contract with Denver Health, the region’s public safety-net hospital, requires an ambulance be on the scene in less than nine minutes in 85 percent of the calls it receives.
The hospital has met that goal, but how compliance is calculated could make a big difference.
Hospital officials said in a prepared statement that the city’s safety department in 2004 signed off on the changes. However, the changes were not ever formalized in the city’s contract with the hospital.
KMGH-Channel 7 also has reported on ambulance response times in recent weeks, saying the times have increased because of understaffing and “frequent flyers,” people who abuse 911 by fabricating emergencies so they can be transported to the hospital.
In the Channel 7 report by Tony Kovaleski, Denver City Council president Michael Hancock said he would ask Mayor John Hickenlooper for an independent review of the ambulance response time issue.
We think that’s a good idea.
Denver Health is an important community asset with a well-earned reputation for being efficient and successful in its wide-ranging mission.
But no institution is perfect.
Denver Health is under enormous financial pressure from a variety of sources — including diminishing Medicaid reimbursements — that threaten to put this valuable community institution in dire fiscal straits.
The decisions by several hospitals to move outside city limits also will put additional pressure on Denver Health, which provides billions in care to uninsured patients.
It is important that city decisions, including whether another entity ought to run the ambulance system, are viewed in the larger context of the hospital’s financial health.
We hope city leaders will make every effort to resolve ambulance response-time questions in a way that doesn’t hurt the hospital financially.
A strong emergency response system is a necessary component of a healthy city.
It’s time to look closely at the effectiveness of Denver’s system and whether there is room for improvement.
