REMARKS
FDNY chief explains impact of hospital closures on ambulance response times
0:57:53
·
144 sec
Chief Michael Fields provides a detailed explanation of how hospital closures affect ambulance response times and emergency care in affected communities. Key points include:
- When a hospital closes, ambulances must travel further to reach the next available facility, increasing response times.
- Remaining hospitals take on more patients, leading to longer ER turnaround times for ambulances.
- Example given: Closure of Kingsborough Jewish Hospital led to redistribution of approximately 6,000 annual cases to other facilities.
- The impact extends beyond just ambulance transports, as walk-in patients (about three times the number of ambulance arrivals) also need to be redistributed.
- Specific data provided for Kings County Hospital: ER turnaround times increased from 41 minutes 2 seconds in 2023 to 44 minutes 14 seconds year-to-date in 2024.
- The cumulative effect of increased turnaround times significantly reduces the availability of ambulances for new emergencies in affected neighborhoods.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:57:53
So we'll follow-up with that.
0:57:55
Okay.
0:57:56
Could you provide projections on higher response time for critical emergencies such as cardiac event?
0:58:03
And severe trauma cases might be impacted when a hospital closes?
Michael Fields
0:58:10
Yeah.
0:58:11
Definitely.
0:58:11
So when a hospital closes, let's take, for instance, Kingsburg Jewish.
UNKNOWN
0:58:17
Mhmm.
0:58:17
So
Michael Fields
0:58:18
Kingsburg Jewish, when it shuts down and the neighbor in the hospital, it's either the Kings County or Downstate.
0:58:24
But as we know downstate, even though it's not closed, it starts to decreases the amount of categories that they're able to accept.
0:58:30
Right?
0:58:31
So that community as a whole, we're gonna have to go a further distance to get that patient over to that respective hospital.
0:58:38
So when hospitals close down, we have to travel further in order to get them the emergency care of the team.
0:58:44
Those hospitals also are taking on more patients.
0:58:48
Right?
0:58:48
So if you take something like Kings County, I believe they did about 28,000 calls last year, but they had 28,958 emergencies that were transported by EMS to that particular facility.
0:59:03
So take into account that Kingsborough Jewish Hospital now is closed.
0:59:08
So the patients that were on average about 6000 cases were going there.
0:59:13
Those patients are still those numbers are still going to emergency rooms.
0:59:17
They're just not going to Kings book Jewish because that one's closed.
Mercedes Narcisse
0:59:20
They go
Michael Fields
0:59:20
now they go to other places, which is Brookdale, which is Kings County, which is Downstate.
0:59:26
Let's also take into account then I'm just talking about what the analyst is worth it.
0:59:30
Look at the amount of patients that are actually walk ins, which is about three times as many as dead of Ra by ambulance.
0:59:36
So by by far, when a hospital shuts down, it infects it infects the entire community, and it definitely has a a negative response in respect to response zones.
0:59:48
We're looking at Kings County Hospital in 2023.
0:59:53
Average was 41 minutes 2 seconds in respect to ER turnaround times.
0:59:58
Year to date, I ran the numbers yesterday.
1:00:00
We're at 44:14:44 minutes, 14 seconds.
1:00:04
That is 3 minutes.
1:00:06
Sam said 3 minutes about 28,000 calls that go there.
1:00:10
That's the amount of minutes that we don't have resources available to respond to that respected neighborhood.
1:00:15
So it definitely has a huge impact.
