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Combined average response time to life-threatening medical emergencies by ambulances and fire companies (FDNY dispatch and travel time only) (minutes:seconds)
Respond to medical emergencies. — Promptly respond to medical emergencies.
* Year to date — this fiscal year isn't complete, so it's not compared against prior years in the target/trend status above.
View as table
| Fiscal year | Actual | Target |
|---|---|---|
| FY22 | 6 min 31 sec | 6 min |
| FY23 | 7 min 3 sec | 6 min |
| FY24 | 7 min 23 sec | 6 min |
| FY25 | 7 min 45 sec | 6 min |
| FY26 (YTD) | 8 min 58 sec | 6 min |
8 min 58 sec in FY26 — missed the City's own target for this indicator (2 min 58 sec above the 6 min target), and it has trended in the wrong direction over the past 3 years of reported data.
Why this is tracked
New York City's EMS system began in 1973 under the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation. On March 17, 1996, EMS merged into FDNY, bringing roughly 3,200 EMS workers, who then responded to about 1.2 million calls a year, into the fire department. The merger was initially contentious, seen by some EMS workers as a hostile takeover and by some firefighters as an unwanted new duty, but an in-house study conducted a few years afterward found that response times and survival rates improved, helped by the department's Certified First Responder program and additional ambulances and EMS stations. FDNY reports the average end-to-end response time to life-threatening medical emergencies was 11 minutes and 21 seconds in fiscal year 2025.
The FDNY commemorates the 30th anniversary of the merger with New York City EMS - NYC.gov, New York City Fire Department Bureau of EMS - Wikipedia
Source: FDNY Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) System/Emergency Medical Service Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Systemand EMS — via NYC Open Data: Mayor's Management Report, Agency Performance Indicators
Coverage shown: FY22–FY26, reported monthly.
Definition: The average dispatch and travel time until either an ambulance or fire unit arrives on the scene of a life-threatening medical emergency, based upon the first unit to arrive, counting from the time FDNY’s dispatcher receives the call or notification of request for assistance. If the call was initially non life-threatening and was upgraded to a life-threatening medical emergency, the time is counted from the initial request for assistance.