Meet the Uber of ambulances

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States has the highest motor vehicle crash death rate among high-income countries, with nearly 1.3 million deaths annually, or about 3,300 per day. Though responders often have just minutes to save a person’s life, average ambulance response time is 15 minutes, 19 seconds.

This is a serious problem, but U.S. emergency responders should know that help is on the way. A small country that most people could hardly locate on a map has not only solved the problem, but can help every major American city do the same.

United Hatzalah (“rescue” in Hebrew) provides Israelis with rapid, professional, pre-ambulance emergency care with a record-breaking average response time of three minutes — and in major cities across Israel, often 90 seconds. The organization’s free services are available to all 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

To achieve these spectacular results, the organization’s founder, Eli Beer, had to solve two problems. First, he needed to construct a highly trained network of people all over the country. Second, he had to create a system to ensure that medics would be able to treat victims almost immediately.

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