One of the biggest worries over the Cleveland Clinic's decision to close Huron Hospital has been the level of service available to those residents in the wake of losing their closest provider. For example, from the outset, Cleveland City Hall said ambulance response times would balloon, and it looks like they were right.
19 Action News reports that Cleveland EMS has already been shuttling eastside patients to hospitals other than Huron because of its imminent closure. (Yesterday, it was announced all but outpatient care would cease as of August 22.)
Eight minutes has now more than doubled to an average of 17.5 minutes.
"We're seeing our transport times at least double with patients who used to go to Huron now going across town to MetroHealth. And our ambulances are tied up a lot longer than they normally would be," said Cleveland EMS, Ed Eckart.So this can back up calls all over the city.
