Who
- Sacramento area hospitals, fire departments, and private emergency medical services providers
- Sacramento County Emergency Medical Services Agency (SCEMSA)
What
Hospitals have worked diligently, innovatively, and collaboratively to improve ambulance patient offload times (APOT) in 2024. With a state-highest collective APOT of 73 minutes in December 2023, area hospitals achieved a remarkable 29 minutes in November 2024.
Notably, this mark complies with the maximum average time allowed by Assembly Bill 40. SCEMSA’s standard since 2016, however, is 20 minutes — so the current focus of advocacy is raising the standard to 30 minutes while striving to not only maintain recent improvements, but also advance further into 2025.
At a Dec. 3, 2024, Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting, local fire departments lauded hospital improvement, commenting that field crews have noticed the dramatic improvement and genuinely feel that things are better. At the same time, however, they strongly resisted raising the standard.
Takeaway/Next Steps
Ongoing conversations with the SCEMSA medical director and Sacramento Board of Supervisors will occur into early 2025.
Contact
RVP Brian Jensen at bjensen@hospitalcouncil.org