"Drug Emergencies" and Ambulance Responses in New York City

According to NYC Open Data, ambulances, on average, took 943 seconds to respond to an emergency when the caller mentions drug-involvement to dispatchers.

But when the caller omits mentioning drug use, and stresses signs/symptoms instead (including "unconsciousness"), ambulances arrive in 460 seconds.

The largest public ambulance service in New York City, FDNY, publishes its dispatch information with NYC Open Data (including initial call type, determined call type, response times, travel times to hospitals, etc). Dispatchers for FDNY use a 1-7 “severity coding system”, in which a 1 is “most severe”, and 7 is “least severe”. Calls given a lower number tend to involve shorter waits for ambulances.

When a caller describes an incident as “drug-related”, or even mentions drug use as a factor in a medical emergency, that call is automatically designated as a “drug-related emergency”. Within FDNY’s 1-7 severity coding system, 99% of drug-related emergencies are given a severity prioritization of “4”.

Emergencies designated as a “1” (reporting unconsciousness, cardiac/resp emergencies, seizures) saw average ambulance wait times of 460 seconds. Emergencies classified as being “drug-related” (reporting overdose/overamp, drug use/involvement in general) saw average wait times of 943 seconds.

In NYC, mentioning “overdose”, “drug use”, or any drug involvement in a 911 call can prolong ambulance wait times by >105%. But focusing on signs/symptoms, especially severe ones (unconsciousness, breathing/cardiac problems) can reduce wait times by > 8 minutes.