By Linda Stein
Delaware Valley Journal
DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. — Twelve minutes.
That’s the new average response time for emergency medical services (EMS) in Delaware County in the wake of the closures of Crozer-Chester and Taylor hospitals on April 30, county officials say.
And that’s a long time if you’re having a heart attack, stroke, are injured in a serious motor vehicle accident, or bleeding from a gunshot or stab wound.
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Lower Chichester Commissioners President Rocco Gaspari Jr said ambulance response times can now take up to 28 minutes. With Crozer-Chester Medical Center—which previously dispatched ambulances for more than half the county’s 911 calls—closed, response times have increased from a prior average of eight minutes, he said.
“I’m worried about the response time,” said Gaspari.
The new average response time in Delaware County is significantly longer than Philadelphia’s 8-minute, 48-second average in a 2022 state report.
In emergency medicine, time is critical. The widely accepted “Golden Hour” doctrine emphasizes that delays in receiving care can result in complications or even death.
County officials also acknowledged that transport times to hospitals have lengthened.
“Following the closures of Crozer and Taylor hospitals, EMS transports in some areas now go to more distant facilities, and in some cases to hospitals outside the county or state,” said Jeffrey Lange, administrator of the Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office.
” The Delaware County Office of the Medical Examiner (DCOME) identified 14 decedent cases transported by EMS in the first two months following the closures in which Crozer or Taylor would have been the closest hospital at the time of the incident,” Lange added. “These are death-related cases.”
Lange noted that while DCOME reviewed the transport distances and receiving hospitals, it does not determine whether a closer facility would have changed any specific outcomes. “EMS agencies do not track hospital diversions in a way that allows for a comprehensive analysis of their frequency or impact,” he said.
“As such, DCOME does not assess whether diversions directly contributed to complications or outcomes in specific cases—such as delays caused by extended travel distances. The information reflects observed changes in EMS routing only, not medical causation.”
He added that four or five of those patients were transported to hospitals in Delaware.
Gaspari explained that if the closest ambulance is unavailable, the 911 dispatcher moves to the next in line. For Lower Chichester, the sequence is Boothwyn, followed by Brookhaven, Rocky Run, Delaware and then New Castle County, Delaware.
John Mick, chief of operations for Narberth Ambulance, said his team is receiving more calls for mutual aid from Delaware County municipalities. Narberth Ambulance has locations in Ridley, Haverford and Lansdowne, in addition to its main site in Ardmore and a station in Conshohocken.
Its average response time is eight to 10 minutes, Mick said, but mutual aid calls from farther distances can take longer.
However, the more significant time factor is often the trip from the scene to the hospital. With Crozer now closed, trauma patients must be taken to facilities such as Lankenau Medical Center in Penn Wynne or Penn Presbyterian in Philadelphia.
Gaspari recounted how his 88-year-old mother was recently transported to Riddle Hospital, which is not a trauma center.
“When I went into the emergency room, there were 14 beds lined up in the hallway with patients in them,” he said. “They had no rooms to put them in.” His mother remained in the hallway for over 24 hours before being moved to a larger room shared with 10 other patients, separated by curtains.
“They’re overburdened because four hospitals have closed in five years in Delaware County,” Gaspari said.
Mick agreed that hospitals are more crowded, leading to longer ambulance turnaround times. What once took 20 minutes to transfer a patient and speak with a nurse can now take over an hour.
“Hospitals are getting overcrowded, and our wait time is longer,” he said. As a result, ambulances are tied up waiting and unavailable for the next emergency call.
“Months earlier, we recognized immediately that our neighbors would need us if Crozer ended up closing, and that’s a responsibility we took very seriously,” said Larry Hanover, a spokesman for Main Line Health, which operates Riddle Hospital and Lankenau. “We have taken steps to ensure that all patients continue to receive high-quality, equitable care. Unfortunately, wait times have been affected by our unprecedented 50 percent increase in emergency department volume.”
Hanover said Main Line Health has streamlined processes to improve patient flow and hired both clinical and non-clinical staff from Crozer to help meet the increased demand. “With the loss of Crozer’s trauma center, Lankenau Medical Center is among the region’s hospitals dealing with increased numbers of trauma cases.”
Since April 30, a total of 10,382 patients have been transported by EMS to various hospitals from nearly every town in the county.
In Lower Chicheste , police response time is one minute and 20 seconds, said Gaspari.
“Twelve minutes, 15 minutes waiting for an ambulance—you’re panicking,” he said. “I don’t like being in that situation. Honest to goodness, I wish I had a magic wand to wave and open up some hospitals—at least one of them.”
How have hospital closures or longer transport times impacted your agency’s response and turnaround times on emergency calls?
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