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A new FDNY policy requiring ambulances to take patients to the nearest hospital—regardless of personal doctor relationships—is facing backlash from doctors and patient advocates. FOX 5 NY’s Duarte Geraldino reports from Brooklyn, where critics argue the change could endanger patients, especially seniors and those with chronic conditions.
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Many doctors crying foul over a new FDNY directive that forces ambulances to take patients
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to the closest hospital, not where the patient may have a doctor
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Fox News, Duarte Giolino is live in Brooklyn where critics say the move is actually putting
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patients' safety and well-being at risk. Duarte. That's right, Natasha. So back in March, as Steve was mentioning, the FDNY commissioner
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instituted a new rule saying all ambulances have to take people to the nearest ER
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no matter what. There used to be a little bit of flexibility depending on whether the emergency was
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life-threatening or not, but not anymore. Now, this change, it goes into effect as the city
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tries to fix a serious problem. Ambulance response times are getting worse. That's right, worse
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Right now, the average weight has jumped nearly 7 percent from 8 minutes, 14 seconds last year
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to almost 9 minutes now. And for some patients, it's even longer
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When you have somebody who drops in front of you, stops breathing, or the heart stops working, you know, you have four to six minutes before clinical death begins
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And after six minutes, biological death begins. The system is overwhelmed, the 911 system
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People have used us for far too long as a cab service
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Here's a little perspective here. There are only about 600 ambulances to cover the millions of people across our city
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Now supporters of the rule say taking patients to the closest hospital makes ambulances available faster for the next 911 call But not every ambulance ride is a true life or death emergency Some patients especially seniors
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might be better off getting a, you know, going a few minutes further to a different hospital
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where their doctors know them and specialists are available. If you don't have an immediate
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life-threatening emergency, don't you want to go to the hospital that can actually take care
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of the problem that you have or the hospital where you were discharged from who have all your
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information, it can help you most. That's what we're talking about here. If you have a broken
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hip, do you want to go to a hospital that does not have orthopedic surgery or do you want to go
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three to five minutes further? We contacted the FDNY and they sent us a statement that reads in
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part under the new EMS policy, the patient will be taken to the nearest appropriate hospital for
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emergency care, though the location can be overridden in some cases if the patient has a
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special need. The point of the policy is to get patients to the hospital quickly while at the same
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time improving EMS response availability. Now, if you are in this situation and you disagree with
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the computer-generated hospital that FDNY will send you to, you actually can appeal to a teledoctor
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from the FDNY. But unless that Teladoc interferes and overrules, you're going to be headed to the
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nearest ER to the location where they dialed 911. At NYU Langone, Duarte Geraldino, Brooklyn
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Fox 5 News. Wow. All right, Duarte, thank you
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