Santa Clara County leaders have had enough excuses from the City of San Jose on why emergency medical response times seem to be “dragging”, to put it mildly. The Fire Department has missed it’s contracted “on-time” response for almost the last year and a half (14 consecutive months). What does the county have to do to get some accountability around here? Supervisor Dave Cortese came up with a plan that puts the screws to the City to get some answers and solutions to why 500-600 lives may be in danger every month because victims are waiting too long for emergency help.
The City signed a contract committing to a minimum on-time response rate of 90% but the City’s actual on-time response target is just 80%. The City is not even trying to meet its commitment. The long response times are a serious health risk for San Jose residents, someone is going to die or suffer serious injury because of it. The City of San Jose has caused this critical situation with irresponsible decisions made by Mayor Reed and his council allies. The County continues to pay out the requirements in the contract with the city, therefore providing an incentive for the City to drag its emergency feet.
Here’s what Cortese is proposing:
1. Find the City of San Jose in breach of the 911 Emergency Medical Services Provider agreement
2. Direct County EMS staff to notify the City of San Jose why they are in breach, remind the City of San Jose of the agreed upon response time requirements, and provide the city of San Jose 30 days to deliver a written cure for review by the County Executive and the BOS by March 11th.
3. Direct the County Executive to convene a meeting with Santa Clara County’s EMS Agency, Rural Metro and the City of San Jose on immediate measures that can be taken during the 30-day cure period to ensure responses in a timely manner
4. Pay the full $863,276 owed for April, May , June and July 2013 with a provision that the response time will be compliant by June 30 or the $152,050 liquidated damage deduction will be deducted from future payments.
5. Direct the County Executive to evaluate the City of San Jose’s emergency medical services system to determine if there is sufficient number of first responder personnel, equipment, and support staff to meet the 90% of emergency medical service calls within 7 minutes at 59 seconds.
This lag time issue is another product of the dysfunctional leadership in the City of San Jose’s administration. Let’s hope these measures “encourage” the City to get its act together.
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