How fast should an ambulance get to you? Denver’s response-time goals are unmet and likely unrealistic, audit finds

If you call 911 for a medical emergency in Denver, expect a bit of a wait.

None of Denver’s major emergency medical response services — 911, fire or EMS — met their response-time goals between May 2023 and March 2024, but it might be because those goals are unrealistic, according to a city audit released Thursday.

During the 11 months considered by the audit, Denver’s 911 call-takers answered the phone within 15 seconds just 71% of the time, short of their goal of doing so 90% of the time. Firefighters reached the scene in five minutes 74% of the time, short of their goal of doing so 90% of the time. Denver Health ambulance crews made it to 84% of their calls within nine minutes, short of their 90% goal.

Ambulance crews took 10 minutes and 14 seconds to reach a scene 90% of the time, while firefighters took six minutes and 11 seconds 90% of the time, according to the 39-page report from Denver’s Office of the Auditor.

“Our current standard is unrealistic,” Armando Saldate, executive director of Denver’s Department of Public Safety, said during an audit committee meeting Thursday.

Auditors did not disagree, though they also didn’t independently find the goal times to be unrealistic. The standard response times for firefighters and EMS providers, set by the National Fire Protection Association, do not take into account real-world factors like traffic congestion, weather, construction or hazards on the street, the auditors found.

In several cities close to Denver’s size, officials have already adjusted their goal response times to be higher than the association’s goals to account for such factors, the auditors found.

The auditors recommended Denver study its response times, patient outcomes, internal processes and those real-world factors in order to set more realistic marks.

“Setting goals that are unrealistic can result in continued noncompliance, which can lead to the appearance to the public that emergency response is not adequate,” the auditors wrote. “This can lead to an erosion in the public’s confidence.”

City officials began re-evaluating response-time goals in November 2023 and plan to continue to look at the issue over the next year, with the aim to pilot new goals in 2026, according to the audit report.

“Let’s not just move it so we are compliant, we need to have a well-thought-out system and set a goal (where) we are getting to the patients that need us to get to them fast,” Saldate said.

Denver Fire Department Chief Desmond Fulton said firefighters are constantly running into hazards as they try to get to scenes. He said the city’s protected bike lanes, in particular, can make it difficult for the department’s big trucks to navigate streets, either because of the bike lanes themselves — separated from the rest of the roadway by bollards — or because of drivers who illegally park along them.

“In instances like that, what we have to do then is go one, two, three blocks past the route we would normally take to streets that might be wider or not have the clearances that prohibit us from making those turns,” he said.

Denver Health Chief Paramedic Gary Bryskiewicz said the agency is doing a better job of diverting calls that don’t require ambulance to other services, like through Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program, which sends mental health professionals in vans to some 911 calls instead of ambulances.

“We’re making strides in making sure we are sending the right resources to the right people at the right time,” he said.

On the 911 side, the city saw significant improvement in call-answering times within the audit window as staffing levels and retention at the agency improved, according to the report. Denver 911 went from answering just 61% of calls within 15 seconds in May 2023 to answering 83% of calls in 15 seconds in March 2024.

A recent review showed the agency needs 41 more full-time call-takers and police dispatchers in addition to the 97 already on staff, said Denver 911 Director Andrew Dameron. He expects to raise the 911 fee that appears on people’s phone bills next year, which will allow him to hire at least 19 new employees.

The audit report also took issue with how Denver measures its response times, the policies that guide response time reporting and the operations of the Emergency Medical Response System Advisory Committee, a group set up in 2008 to oversee the system’s performance. The group was poorly organized and did not properly document its meetings, the auditors found.

Saldate said in a response letter that the advisory group saw significant turnover and canceled meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic, but acknowledged the group would benefit from better record-keeping.

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