By FLORA FAIR
The Fire Department released its annual performance numbers, revealing that Emergency Medical Service response times are up by 22 seconds across the board, a rise union officials say will take more than money to fix.
Patrick J. Bahnken, head of EMS Local 2507 of District Council 37, is not surprised by higher numbers. “Our overall responses generally increase every year,” he said.
They grew by more than 25,000 in 2010, up from 1,236,730 in 2009 to 1,261,993. That’s nearly 200,000 more total responses than 10 years ago.
Reasons Behind the Numbers
Mr. Bahnken attributed the steady rise to a growing population, both generally and among the aging. He also blamed a bad economy. When someone loses their job and the health insurance that comes with it, they often stop going to the doctor. “What happens is people push their health until it becomes an emergency,” he said. “Then a small infection can turn into a real problem.”
Ambulance response times have also increased. Responses for the most serious calls were at 5:29, up 22 seconds from last year. Overall responses also increased by 22 seconds from 8:27 in 2009 to 8:49 in 2010. Mr. Bahnken says one reason for the increase is the closing of several hospitals in recent years. The shortage of beds means that ambulances must wait at an Emergency Room longer for a patient to be admitted.
Though funding and tight resources are a concern, Mr. Bahnken blamed “the general bureaucracy” for stunting possible solutions. For instance, a 2009 pilot program in which ambulances were run in two 12-hour shifts, rather than three eight-hour shifts, freed up resources. “But what happened was it got micromanaged to death,” he said. He said the closing of two hospitals in Queens also helped ruin the program. “When you create a hostile work environment, sick leave goes up,” he said. “Unfortunately we become more obsessed with process than with results.”
‘Adversarial Postures Exist’
“The single thing that stops us from making real progress is the adversarial postures that exist,” he said. “I as a union president am certainly a contributing party to that. There are strategic plans that are put in place by the administration and they are treated like national security secrets.”
Though Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano has been more responsive than his two predecessors, Mr. Bahnken still sees systemic failures: “What I think is usually more productive is that everybody gets an idea of where the ship needs to go, and then instead of having to get 40 people in a room again to address something as simple as scheduling, you have to have one core group with a person who has absolute authority and absolute responsibility to make it work.”
Unless the unions, Fire Department and city work together to find solutions, response times could continue to increase. “The city, their concern is money,” he said. “I know we can’t print that up in the basement of City Hall. Where I get frustrated is the concept that anything put forth by the union is evil and must be destroyed.”