By Richard Ilgenfritz
Main Line Times & Suburban
RADNOR, Pa. — About six weeks after Radnor officials declared an emergency for the township ambulance services due to concerns over the closure of a major Delaware County health system, township officials say crews are still keeping up.
The board of commissioners originally approved the emergency declaration on April 28, following the closing of the Crozer Health System.
| READ MORE: From 73 to 33 minutes: How Sacramento reinvented patient offload times
Bill White, Radnor Township manager, said Radnor declared its emergency due to concerns of ripple effects resulting from the loss or the closures of hospitals in southern Delaware County and then the resulting ambulatory services that would be lost, and then what would happen to Radnor’s EMS services if they would be strained by those closures and loss of EMS services down in the southern part of the county.
Several weeks ago, Prospect Medical Holdings, which owns Crozer Health, announced it is shutting down the health system.
Radnor’s resolution for the emergency declaration described the situation as “a significant public health crisis [that] has emerged in Delaware County due to the reduction of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the closure of two Delaware County hospitals, a direct consequence of the overall closure of Crozer-Chester Health .”
“So over the past month, the weekly EMS calls for volume outside of Radner have remained relatively stable,” White said.
White said they’ve been anywhere from about four to six calls per week outside of the township.
“Those response locations were either Newtown Township, Haverford Township, or 476, so not too far outside of our borders,” White said. “These call volumes appear consistent with pre-emergency levels, so that’s that’s good news so far. Overall, the EMS response times reported by the fire company in these weekly updates have remained stable, so we’re not seeing increased response times both to the calls outside of Radnor as well as ones inside Radnor, which was, if you recall, one of our primary concerns.”
White also indicated that the offloading times have been about the same.
“Offloading times have been around five to six minutes,” White said. “Some concern over the week of June 9th where that swelled up to about 12 minutes, but then the week after, it went right back down to the more regular window of five to six.”
The offloading time represents the time it takes to transfer a patient from an ambulance to a receiving facility, such as an emergency department, and for hospital staff to assume responsibility for the patient’s care. It’s a critical metric for measuring the efficiency of emergency medical services and the responsiveness of hospitals.
“So, in quick summary, the call volumes have not increased. The times are staying stable, and we’re keeping an eye on the amount of time the EMS units are out of service with these calls. But as of now, things are relatively within normal conditions. We haven’t seen a great big impact from our fire company just yet, but again, it’s something that they keep tabs on every week, and we will keep you informed as we move forward.”
| READ NEXT: Ambulances held hostage: Overcoming hospital bed delays
© 2025 Main Line Times & Suburban, Ardmore, Pa..
Visit www.mainlinemedianews.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.