DOV MAISEL

Jersey City is just across the water from lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. About 40 percent of the town?s residents were born outside the United States, and more than half the city speaks a language other than English at home, according to the most recent census data. So, it?s perhaps no surprise that Jersey City is embracing a style of emergency medical services that, until now, has only existed abroad.




It?s staffed by community volunteers, and it?s based on an Israeli system, called United Hatzalah.

Jersey City already boasts one of the lowest urban 911 response times in the US. It takes less than six minutes, on average, for an ambulance to get where it is needed. Nine minutes is more typical.

Recently, a paramedic team responded to a patient reporting a heart attack in about four minutes. But that's not good enough. The city and its hospital have set an aggressive goal of responding to emergency calls in less than two minutes. That?s unheard of in this country, but not in Israel, where GPS software deploys two response teams at once: an ambulance, plus people nearby who can help until it arrives.

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