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EMS report: 8,007 ambulance dispatches in July; department cites gains in hospital offload and sobering-center transports
Summary
Deputy Chief Simon Pang reported July ambulance dispatches and described a small but measurable improvement in ambulance offload delays, a rise in transports to the city sobering center, continued Narcan use, and a new violence-in-the-workplace policy to support medics.
Deputy Chief Simon Pang told the Fire Commission on Aug. 13 that San Francisco Fire Department ambulances were dispatched to 8,007 calls in July and that the department is seeing modest but meaningful improvements in ambulance patient offload delays at hospitals.
Pang said the department recorded roughly 150 hours of ambulance time lost to hospital delays in July but that metrics are improving compared with the prior year. He credited persistent messaging and operational changes for part of the improvement and pointed to one concrete change: increased use of the city's sobering center as an alternative destination for appropriate patients.
"We asked our captains to start messaging our members, don't forget about the sobering center," Pang said. He told the commission that transports to the sobering center rose from 17 in June to 25 in July, a 47% increase, and that average turnaround there is about nine minutes versus…
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