SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Sacramento audit found the city’s emergency medical response system is struggling under growing demand, with non-emergency calls, hospital delays and outdated policies putting increasing strain on the Sacramento Fire Department’s EMS division.
The May 2026 audit reviewed Sacramento Fire Department EMS operations from dispatch to hospital offload and found low-acuity incidents continue to consume a significant amount of department resources.
Out of more than 98,000 incidents reviewed in 2024, about 61,000 were medical calls and roughly 18,000 were considered low-acuity or non-emergency incidents, Sacramento Auditor Farishta Ahrary said during a budget and audit committee meeting…