Measure description
When someone calls 911 to request emergency medical services, first responders and ambulances fulfill different roles in the response. In a life-threatening (Code 3) medical emergency, first responders providing basic and advanced life support (BLS/ALS) arrive first at the scene of the incident to treat any persons until an ambulance arrives to transport them to the hospital, if necessary. According to policy set forth by San Francisco’s Emergency Medical Services Agency, ambulances should arrive at the scene of a life-threatening emergency medical incident within ten minutes at least 90 percent of the time.
Why this measure is important
Reporting on ambulance response to life-threatening emergencies provides the public, elected officials, and City staff with a snapshot of how quickly a person in a life-threatening emergency may be provided with medical care. Safe, speedy transport to medical care facilities in case of a life-threatening emergency is critical. The San Francisco Fire Department has met the 90 percent target in five out of the last seven fiscal years, and narrowly missed the target in the last two years of reporting despite FY23 having significantly more life-threatening emergency incidents.
The interactive chart below presents the percentage of ambulances that arrive on-scene within 10 minutes to life-threatening medical emergencies.
The chart's legend is below:
- Y-axis: Percent of ambulances arriving on-scene within 10 minutes each month
- X-axis: Months within the Calendar Year
Ambulance Response to Life-Threatening Emergencies
The San Francisco Fire Department has met the 90 percent target in five out of the last seven fiscal years, and narrowly missed the target in the last two years of reporting despite FY23 having significantly more life-threatening emergency incidents, 102,210, than any year in the prior 10 years. There were 104,058 life-threatening emergency incidents in FY24.
How performance is measured
In the emergency response visual below, “SFFD Response Time” is measured from "Call Dispatched” to “Units On-Scene", the “Roll Time”. By the time “Roll Time” begins, a 9-1-1 emergency call was made, received by DEM and entered into the CAD system, and a service request was queued for the closest available ambulance to respond.
Ambulance on-time performance is calculated as the percent of total life-threatening emergency calls for which an ambulance responded within 10 minutes. Calls that were upgraded from non-life-threatening (Code 2) to life-threatening enroute to the scene are excluded from the calculation.
Additional Information
- Visit the Fire Division of Emergency Medical Services and the Department of Emergency Management websites for more information.
- Look up Medical Call Statistics here.
Data
Please visit DataSF for the ambulance response time scorecard data.
City Performance Scorecards
This page is part of the City Performance Scorecards.
Return to the Public Safety Scorecard.
Return to the City Performance Scorecards Home Page.