EMS Response Times Are Double in Rural vs. Urban Areas

To define the difference in rural versus urban emergency medical services (EMS) response times, investigators reviewed records from 485 EMS agencies in the U.S. The researchers defined rural areas as having <2500 residents, suburban areas as having 2500 to 50,000 residents, and urban areas as having >50,000 residents.

Among nearly 1.8 million patient encounters, the 4% from rural areas experienced significantly slower EMS response times: Median response times were 6 minutes for urban and suburban patients and 13 minutes for rural patients. The 90th-percentile response time was 12 minutes for urban patients, 14 minutes for suburban patients, and 26 minutes for rural patients.