TULSA, Okla. — FOX23 researched into some Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) numbers after they declined an interview about their 21 minute response time when a man died in police custody.
It is EMSA’s policy to respond to “Priority 1″ calls within 10 minutes and 59 seconds at least 90 percent of the time.
According to EMSA’s website, “Priority 1″ calls are critical situations, such as heart attacks, strokes, drownings and traumatic motor vehicle collisions.
We found that Tulsa EMSA met that standard only 4 out of the last 12 months. November of 2021, their response compliance was 88 percent. December, it was 85 percent. January of 2022, it was 82 percent. February, it was 85 percent, March, it was 90 percent, April, it was 91 percent, May, it was 89 percent, June, it was 88 percent, July, it was 86 percent, August, it was 89 percent September, it was 91 percent and October, it was 92 percent.
According to the records in October, EMSA responded late to 154 out of 1,989 calls.
The data shows most of the “Priority 1″ calls that were late for the month were between one and two minutes late. The records show there are calls that paramedics were 5, 10 and even 16 minutes late.
We asked EMSA to interview strictly on response times and they declined, saying it would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is to protect patient identity, but their response times are public record.
They responded with a statement:
In September (91%) and October (92%) 2022, EMSA was above the 90% Priority 1 Call response time threshold in the City of Tulsa. In several preceding months, EMSA was a few percentage points short of reaching the 90% standard. We can attribute this to lingering effects of post-pandemic recovery, staffing shortages across the healthcare industry, near-record call volume, as well as hospital bed delays keeping crews waiting with patients at local hospital ERs. In August 2022, most late calls were between one and three minutes late. EMSA remains committed to providing excellent patient care to residents in the cities we serve.
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