After going eight months without publishing quarterly ambulance-response statistics, Dutchess County has released data for the first half of 2026, using a new format that eliminates several metrics previously available to the public.
The first- and second-quarter figures, presented at the Sept. 1 meeting of the Dutchess County Supervisors and Mayors Association, no longer separately report municipal ambulance response times — which used to list whether responses took under 9 minutes or over 15 minutes — or whether the call being answered was life-threatening or nonurgent.
Instead, the county now reports a single measure for each service area: “Average response time for first arriving ambulance.”
That change makes direct comparisons with the county’s 2025 reports difficult and leaves unanswered questions about how frequently residents experience especially long waits for emergency care.
The county has provided quarterly reports since launching its $2 million annual “EMS Matters” initiative in January 2025. The program aims to combat a years-long emergency medical services crisis driven by shrinking volunteer numbers, an underpaid workforce, and deepening financial strain.
As part of the initiative, the county contracted with Empress EMS for $1.47 million to provide two basic life-support ambulances and one advanced life-support “fly car,” which respond when local emergency service is unavailable.
What the new data leaves out
The county’s previous metrics offered a more detailed picture of EMS performance across its service areas.
Among other measures, the reports separated life-threatening Priority 1 emergencies from other calls and showed how frequently ambulances arrived within nine minutes, the national standard. They also tracked cases in which an EMS agency was unable to respond.
The 2026 format combines calls of varying urgency into a single average response time for the first ambulance to arrive.
Emergency Response Commissioner William Beale said in an email to the Herald that the new measure includes all calls, rather than only Priority 1 emergencies, and calculates average local ambulance response times.
He said the change was intended to provide a “more accurate picture of EMS in Dutchess County.”
But because the parameters have changed, the new figures cannot be directly compared with the Priority 1 averages published for 2025. The reports also no longer allow the public to determine from the published data how often an ambulance takes more than 15 minutes to arrive, how frequently a local agency cannot respond, or how quickly the county-contracted supplemental ambulances themselves arrive.
The timing of the data release has also drawn scrutiny
“There is no established “due date” for the EMS data,” Beale wrote. “While we strive to provide it in a timely manner after the completion of each quarter, there will be times when it takes longer for any number of reasons.”
Dutchess County Legislator Eric Alexander, a Democrat representing District 25 and chair of the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee, criticized the level of detail in the new report.
“This report is the opposite of what we need,” Alexander said. “We need the stats to be as granular as possible to help us make a strategic plan. We’d be seeing a lot more detail if the results were more impressive.”
Legislator Chris Drago, a Democrat whose 19th District includes Stanford, Pine Plains, Milan, Red Hook, North East, and Millerton, also questioned the change.
“We received the EMS stats with no explanation,” he said. “We will have a lot of questions for Beale when we meet with him in October.”
Long waits persist in Milan
Even under the new methodology, the first-half figures show sharp differences in ambulance arrival times across Dutchess County.
The disparity remains especially pronounced in rural communities such as Milan and Pine Plains, which do not contract with commercial ambulance companies and rely primarily on volunteer services.
Milan posted an average first-arriving ambulance time of 19 minutes and 31 seconds during the first quarter and 20 minutes and 50 seconds during the second — the slowest averages in the county during the first half of the year, according to the data.
The figures cannot be directly compared with Milan’s year-end 2025 average of 15 minutes and 5 seconds, however, because that metric included only Priority 1 calls, while the 2026 data includes all calls, including nonurgent ones.
Pine Plains averaged 11 minutes and 14 seconds in the first quarter of 2026, and 9 minutes and 27 seconds in the second quarter. Its 2025 year-end Priority 1 average was 12 minutes and 52 seconds.
The lower 2026 figures suggest shorter average waits, but the change in methodology makes it impossible to determine from the published reports alone whether Priority 1 response times themselves improved.
Stanford, which has a $768,000 contract this year with Northern Dutchess Paramedics, recorded an average response time of 14 minutes and 6 seconds in the first quarter of 2026 and 11 minutes and 33 seconds in the second. Its 2025 Priority 1 average was 11 minutes and 25 seconds.
Here, too, the different measurements limit a direct year-to-year comparison.
A Pine Plains EMT disputes the numbers
Pine Plains resident Nelson Zayas, an emergency medical technician who has served with the town rescue squad for two years, said his own records show different response times from those reported by the county.
“I don’t understand the differences in some of the categories the county listed,” he said. “And I absolutely dispute the response times.”
Zayas said he records Pine Plains ambulance arrival times using Chief Mobile, an emergency-alert application used by first responders.
“Our average response time for the second quarter of this year was 8 minutes and 15 seconds — 7 minutes and 18 seconds for just Priority 1 calls,” he said. “And that’s the arrival of our ambulance, not just our fly car.”
Supplemental ambulances remain concentrated elsewhere
One part of the quarterly report remains largely unchanged: data detailing where the county’s supplemental ambulances are dispatched.
Those figures continue to show that supplemental units respond far more frequently in higher-volume fire and EMS districts than in rural northeastern Dutchess.
From April through June, county-contracted ambulances were dispatched 1,278 times. The Rombout Fire District, in Fishkill, received supplemental assistance 138 times; while the Fairview Fire District, in Poughkeepsie, 141 times.
Milan received supplemental assistance 18 times during the quarter, and Pine Plains, 11 times.
The pattern echoes the county’s earliest supplemental-ambulance data. In the first quarter of 2025, county units were dispatched 544 times, with roughly 60% of calls concentrated in high-demand areas including Beacon, East Fishkill, Fishkill, and Poughkeepsie.
“Supplemental ambulances will never work for the northeastern part of the county because we don’t have the call volume,” Drago said.
A state deadline approaches
The questions over Dutchess County’s data come as county officials face a December deadline to submit a comprehensive EMS plan to the state.
Under a state law first signed in December 2025 and subsequently amended in March, every county must develop a comprehensive plan assessing its existing EMS system and establishing a framework for future service. The plans must be submitted to the state Department of Health, State EMS Council, and the appropriate regional EMS council by Dec. 19, 2026.
Beale is scheduled to appear before the Legislature’s Public Safety Committee on Oct. 8, to review the county EMS data.
“When we meet with [him], we’ll be asking difficult questions,” Alexander said. “The county is projecting a significant shortfall in the upcoming budget, and the governor wants an EMS status report in December. If we wait for divine intervention and direction from the county, we’ll be waiting for a long time.”