UPDATE: New York City Fire Department Finally Responds to 11-Month-Old Freedom of Information Law Request

Ten days after speaking to a Fire Department of New York City public records officer about an 11-month-old data request, I finally received (what I consider) an acceptable interim response.

Last March, I had asked FDNY for the number of ambulance transports to hospitals from nursing homes, hotels, police stations, and jails during the first five months of 2020. They pushed my request back several times before I called and spoke with a staffer about the delay. “We have a new director for our unit,” she said, “and I just let her know that your request is outstanding for a period of time and I gave her this information so that she can start having it processed.” (She also mentioned being short-staffed.)

The update I received last week from Records Access Officer Alva Wright blamed the delay on the volume of requests FDNY receives and the complexity of some of the records I requested.

As for the data itself, I need to narrow the scope of my request for pick ups from nursing homes and hotels by submitting specific locations or addresses (which I will do). [UDPATE: I submitted a list of nursing homes/LTC facilities in my revised request] Additional time is needed to respond to the request for transports from police stations and jails.

These requests are part of my ongoing inquiry into New York City’s mass casualty event of spring 2020. I asked for ambulance transport data specific to certain kinds of locations to get a better sense of whether specific populations were or weren’t being transported to hospitals — and when.

Public EMS dispatch data show a 50% drop in transports during the initial COVID-19 emergency period at nearly the same time emergency department visits dropped and hospital deaths spiked.

Sources: New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) EMS Incident Dispatch Data. Hospital death data obtained via FOIL. Requested from NYC DOHMH on June 15, 2023 by Jessica Hockett. Records received on July 26, 2023 | Values under 5 were censored and replaced with 3.

The decline in hospital activity alongside the unprecedented levels of death is one of eight anomalies that colleagues from

PANDA

and I highlighted in an article about what official data for New York City claim occurred in 2020.

Does New York City 2020 Make Any Sense?

UPDATE 5/16/24