DETROIT – Emergency response times in Detroit have decreased to the national average.
Just years ago, getting an ambulance to respond to an emergency could take an average of 18 to 22 minutes. Those times are down to just and eight minutes and ten seconds.
Detroit EMS said they’ve responded to each and every incident during this violent spring and all within the national average.
“We don’t hear the personal transports, we don’t hear the complaints of what took EMS so long, what took the fire department so long, because were there,” Detroit EMS Chief Sean Larkins said.
Detroit is reporting a ten week low in EMS response time.
Detroit firefighters with medical training are helping EMS respond.
“It easier for them when they are responding directly from the fire station to get to an assigned run so that is definitely helping to bring the response time numbers closer to that national average,” Detroit EMS Deputy Chief Sydney Zack said.
The department said the numbers are the actual times. The increase is due to the use of 24 Fire Department SUVs to respond, along with 25 ambulances and 250 EMTs.
The good performance comes with a problem. Other cities are poaching Detroit EMS worker, hiring them away after Detroit trains them.
“People are actively looking at our members trying to get them to bolster their departments,” Larkins said.