Boston City Council Hears EMS Dispatch System Is Outdated, Understaffed, and Underfunded

BOSTON — July 31, 2025 — Boston City Council hears that EMS dispatchers face outdated phones, a $25,000 pay gap, and rising response times. The Committee on Public Health, Homelessness and Recovery, chaired by Councillor John FitzGerald and joined by co-sponsors Erin J. Murphy and Edward M. Flynn, convened Thursday on Docket 1372 to examine the state of Boston EMS dispatch communications. BPPA EMS Division president Jason Yetkins testified that EMS call takers — all certified EMTs — operate on analog phones that cannot transfer calls or display reliable caller ID, and that a June 18, 2024, statewide 911 outage forced every EMS emergency through a single line with no hold or transfer capability. Communications Systems Engineer Elliot Derdak said 15 new Verizon Webex VOIP handsets are already on hand and targeted for a September go-live, while a new CMED console is awaiting a vendor software fix expected by the fourth quarter of 2025. Murphy requested data on all 911-to-EMS calls exceeding seven minutes from August 2024 through July 2025, and Flynn asked for three years of response-time records and cases where EMS took more than 10 minutes to reach a patient. Yetkins told councillors that EMS dispatchers earn more than $25,000 a year less than their police counterparts, calling the disparity "demoralizing" at a time when mandatory double shifts of up to 16 hours are common.