Denver Council Demands Overhaul of Ambulance System

DENVER, Colo. --

Citing an extensive CALL7 Investigation, members of Denver's city council and the mayor demanded changes to the operation of the ambulance system including improvements to response times to emergencies and better overall coverage of the city and Denver International Airport.

The actions follow nearly a year of critical failures exposed by the CALL7 Investigators.

"I think we're moving in the right direction here. There have been a lot of system changes," said Denver Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz.

She acknowledged, "We were not meeting the standards that we put in our own contract and now have a plan to get there to meet the national standards."

In a series of reports, CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski uncovered a citywide problem of ambulances failing to meet national standards for response times including a 15-minute average response to Denver International Airport, the fourth busiest airport in the country.

When Continental flight 1404 crashed at DIA in December, it took the first ambulance 33-minutes to reach survivors.

The city's ambulance corps is contracted to Denver Health Medical Center and now that contract is under more thorough review as the city council wants new standards.

"We're dealing with life and death issues on the street and the reality is [Denver Health] had to respond. We had information that proved we were not getting there on time and not dealing with people as we are supposed to and as people expect us to," said Denver councilman Michael Hancock.

Denver Health's Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Thomas told Kovaleski, "I think you've brought up some issues where we could have done a better job. We take our role very seriously and we worked very hard with the city, the call center, the 911 center and our partners at the fire department to come up with a collective improved system for the citizens."

She continued, "I think we've made some great improvements here."

Denver Health officials said they will phase in changes over the next several months with a goal of cutting nearly five minutes from response times citywide by the end of November.

On the issue of the delayed response to the crash of Flight 1404, the hospital's CEO told city council, "I think we learned there should be an automatic response."

New policies and procedures are in place to make certain that happens.

Faatz told Kovaleski, "The DIA situation has made the most advancement because your report made a difference and certainly Denver Health has taken it to heart. I think the city has taken it to heart and with just those system changes... I don't believe you're going to be seeing that kind of response time out at DIA again."

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