DENVER -- Denver’s mayor and airport manager vowed to improve ambulance response times to DIA after a CALL7 Investigation uncovered long waits during medical emergencies.

“Clearly, there is significant room for improvement," Mayor John Hickenlooper told CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski.

CALL7 investigators analyzed data from Denver International Airport and Denver Health Medical Center that showed long delays for patients at the busy, but outlying airport. The city contracts with Denver Health for ambulance service.

The computer analysis of data showed that in the last year, the average response time to DIA was about 15 minutes. That was nearly twice the response standard of less than nine minutes that Denver Health’s city contract requires the hospital to meet at least 85 percent of the time.

The average ambulance came from 12 miles away, the analysis shows.

“There's no question, as you looked into it and you got into the metrics, it was clear to everyone we need to make a change,” said Denver Manager of Aviation Kim Day. “There's no question the story that you broke brought it to everyone's attention.”

The CALL7 investigation also found that of 265 calls in 12 months:

- 94 percent of all calls to DIA exceeded the 8 minute and 59 second response goal.

- 19 percent of all calls exceeded 20 minutes.

- 4 percent of ambulance runs to DIA took longer than 30 minutes.

DIA is also the only one of the top five airports that doesn’t have an ambulance stationed on site.

“Fifteen minutes response times at DIA when people's lives are on the line. Reaction to that number?" Kovaleski asked.

“I think that's what we gotta obviously improve,” Hickenlooper said. “That's too long for an ambulance to be getting there."

DIA officials point out that there are paramedics stationed at the airport so they are often quickly at the scene of an emergency. However, hospital managers concede paramedics can not always help all patients, and the most seriously ill need to be taken to hospitals.

Denver Health and city officials have formed a study group to determine what to do about ambulance response times to DIA. The hospital’s ambulance contract with the city expires in January and officials expect to improve the DIA ambulance responses by that time.