Response times

Being in favor of delivering ambulance service in well-equipped units that usually arrive on scene within a few minutes of an emergency is a bit like saying you want the best heart surgeon in the land performing your triple-bypass. What’s there to argue about? However, beyond the basic “motherhood and apple pie” premise, almost everything about response times can be debated. Standards, scientific evidence demonstrating efficacy, measurement methods and how EMS organizations can improve response times are all complex issues.
Because it has the appearance of objectivity, response time is the single key operational measure used to assess system performance from the citizen’s perspective. Yet this seemingly straightforward measure is frequently misunderstood, calculated in ways that make benchmarking difficult and often not independently validated.
This article debunks the myths about response time and discusses the important issues your service should be concerned with when recording and using response times.