Why is it that the seemingly simple issue of calculating ambulance-response times in Denver has had such longevity?
The topic has been kicking around for years, and centers on measuring the time it takes an ambulance to respond to an emergency call.
It shouldn’t be that difficult.
Someone calls 911 and asks for help. You start the stopwatch. When the ambulance gets there, you stop it.
Then you look at the times. Have you met the standards of good emergency care or not?
Were it only that easy.
Denver Health Medical Center, which runs the city’s ambulance system, appears to be involved in some sort of dispute with at least some of its paramedics about how to measure those times.
Earlier this week, The Post’s Christopher N. Osher wrote a story saying Denver paramedics reported statistics for one month showing they failed to meet response-time standards in nearly 25 percent of calls involving cardiac arrest or severe trauma. That’s troubling. And when the medical director of Denver Health’s paramedics and the Denver Fire Department saw the data and asked how it was compiled, he determined it was inaccurate. Instead of paraphrasing him, we’ll print exactly what he said in a prepared statement:
“When I saw the information first included in the [quality assurance] report, I asked how the data was calculated, and determined that it was inaccurate,” said Dr. Chris Colwell, the medical director of Denver Health paramedics and the Denver Fire Department.
According to Osher’s story, hospital officials believe paramedics were entering data based on recollections, and in doing so making errors.
It’s exasperating that this issue, which is an important measure of a community’s public safety status, has been kicking around for years.
Denver Health says it thinks the world of its paramedics and doesn’t have issues with them. Officials there also say it’s important to keep in mind that the city has a two-tiered response system.
The fire department arrives first to offer initial assistance. If someone is having a heart attack, that might mean using a defibrillator and giving oxygen to victims. Then, paramedics arrive, offering advanced life support.
Denver Health sent us figures showing it has superb trauma survival rates and cardiac outcomes, and for that we salute them. A strong and dependable emergency-response system is vital to a healthy city.
Denver Health officials are looking closely at the response-time issue and Auditor Dennis Gallagher is readying a performance audit of the city’s emergency medical response system that is to be completed later this year.
We’re hopeful that these investigations will shed some light on whether the city’s ambulance system is run in the most effective fashion.
The issue needs to clearly and publicly resolved, once and for all.
