Are wait times increasing for emergency responders to arrive? WCCO Investigates
The number of 911 calls is going up but the number of licensed emergency responders is going down.
This is the conundrum for both Minnesota residents and the professionals working to answer their calls, and time is not a luxury for those awaiting a timely response.
"We waited and waited, and I couldn't move," Marcia Poquette, of Woodbury, told WCCO News. "I didn't know if anyone was coming. You lay there for 20 minutes. You're hurting, you're bleeding, and no one came."
Poquette said she fell down her back stairs and gashed her head; the Woodbury EMS chief said a parademic arrived eight minutes after her husband dialed 911, but an ambulance came separately from Oakdale.
"They need something else. They need to find a way to get to the people here," Poquette said.
Across the state, officials noted that in the last three years, 90% of ambulances are arriving on scene within 15 minutes. When call volumes go up – in Woodbury calls are reportedly up 55% – state EMS director Dylan Ferguson said sometimes agencies are having to prioritize other calls that may be more life-threatening.
"We're looking at strokes being time-sensitive, chest pain and heart attacks, and then certainly cardiac arrest," Ferguson explained to WCCO News. "Those are the three that have shown that a rapid EMS response has a direct impact on patient outcomes."
Staffing continues to be the key challenge, Ferguson added, as the number of expiring licenses for EMS staff continues to outnumber the number of people applying for new licenses. And it's been that way every year since 2020.
That's also a reason why Ferguson said the state is piloting other ways to provide emergency care, including through telehealth.
"They're putting telehealth equipment in the back of ambulances throughout Northeast and Southwest Minnesota," he told WCCO News. "Kind of like a doc on demand. They can hit a button and a board-certified emergency physician comes onto the screen and is there to provide support to the EMS provider and to provide support to the patient."
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