All this new technology is really getting in the way of emergency workers' ability to save lives, apparently. The same week a man who suffered a heart attack may or may not have perished after paramedics were foiled by JFK's state-of-the security doors, EMTs are grousing that a new tablet-based computer system that records ambulance calls is prone to freezing up and losing its wireless signal, the Post reports.
Workers are required to use the tablets to document the information on each "aided" case they attend, the tabloid said, a procedure that must be completed before they can take new calls. If the process is delayed, well...so is the response.
An FDNY spokesperson told us she had no knowledge of any such issue.
Also under the disconcerting heading of "Emergency Response Delays," the firefighter's union is blaming the new 911 call system for a 12-minute delay in relaying information regarding a Bronx fire that scorched three buildings and displaced five families when it broke out early yesterday morning, NY1 reports.
But in a press conference yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg denied that the response time was as slow as the UFA made it out to be.
"The numbers are, in many, cases wrong," he said, adding that according to the city's data, the actual response time was five minutes. "So let's just get away from trying to create a bargaining position for the union."
