Commission hears call to expand medical oversight, training and AED access for LAFD emergency medical services

A presenting physician told the Los Angeles City Health Commission that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s emergency medical services are understaffed and lack sufficient medical oversight, urging the commission to press for expanded physician leadership, more frequent clinician training and wider public access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

The presentation focused on metrics the speaker said show worsening outcomes: LAFD handles roughly 1,200,000 calls for help a year that amount to about 450,000–500,000 unique patient incidents, the presenter said, including an estimated 6,000 out‑of‑hospital cardiac arrests annually. “This model…doesn't always achieve the optimal outcome,” the presenter said, and reported the city’s overall survival after cardiac arrest fell from about 10.6% in 2016 to 5.1% in 2023, a decline the speaker said disproportionately affects underserved communities such as South Los Angeles.

Why it matters: the presenter emphasized that roughly 90% of LAFD’s calls are medical rather than fire related, that a single full‑time physician and a part‑time assistant medical director currently oversee medical care for thousands of field providers, and that that small medical leadership team has limited integration with department command and budget processes. The speaker said this configuration risks poorer quality improvement, delayed adoption of evidence‑based resuscitation…