Re: 911:: Question about policy

[Guest guest]

you wrote:

<< So my question to all of you is does your agency have a policy for

these type of calls? >>

Speaking from BOTH sides of the radio here. In my Off time, I am a Volunteer

EMT for one of the local Townships. In our County the Medical Control makes

the Policy for the Responders. We do not advise them if they should stage or

not...we give them all the details and advise them that Law Enforcement is

enroute and their ETA. It is up to the Responders to make the decision to

stage or not. The Medical Control POLICY is to stage at all times...but I

have to tell you I have broken the policy in at least one instance where a

teenager who had ingested pills and alcohol in an attempt to commit suicide

was unconscious and had vomited...we staged a half a block from the house and

his brother ran up to the Ambulance and begged us to help the teen...I made

the decision to go in...his parents were there...there were no weapons. We

found out later his BAC was

..28 and he had ingested a half of a bottle of his mother's sleeping pills.

Law Enforcement got there approx. 5 minutes after we were on scene...In my

opinion, leave it up to the Responders to decide, of course with every bit of

GOOD information that you can give them...if it is iffy, they need to know

that too...there are so many variables.

Sue Case

Grand Traverse County 911

Michigan

[Guest guest]

Just my opinion ... but I think they should always stage on these scenarios.

Number one for their safety. You never know when something is truly

accidental and you don't know if there is possibly still someone on the scene

making them say it was an accident or whatever. It should not take forever

for police to get on scene for these types of calls and they can notify FD

and EMS that the scene is secure fairly quickly. I for one would not take the

chance risking my FD and EMS's lives by sending them into an unknown

situation. As far as you the dispatcher being liable I would advise you to

read your departments policy on these calls. If your department has a written

policy advising EMS and FD to stage then no you are just following protocol.

If your department leaves it up to the dispatcher I dont think I would feel

comfortable with that. Its hard to know just from reading the call text what

is really going on out there.

Just my opinions.

Roxann

Police Dispatch

Arlington TX

[Guest guest]

Our staging policy states that we will always stage when there is an assault

in progress or a violent scene/crime (shooting/stabbing). Other than it

defaults to a common sense approach, with the understanding that we need to

be able to justify our rational for choosing to stage a unit. The field

units can also stage on their own prerogative, of course. Anytime we are

staging, the law enforcement agency is notified... and the officers will

clear us in once the scene is secure.

While our crew safety is our #1 priority we also recognized a problem with

past staging policies that were similar to what have been described here.

That " blanket " approach just didn't work for us... We found that we were

often staging unnecessarily and delaying patient care.

_______________________________

Adam

Communications Supervisor Intern

Austin- County EMS

www.austinems.com

[Guest guest]

Whose common sense, the dispatcher's or the responder's? This is something

that really ought to be spelled out in procedure.

Re: 911:: Question about policy

> Those 2 words >> " COMMON SENSE " << are actually in our staging policy.

>

[Guest guest]

>On suicidal subjs, we *tell* them to stage at a

pre-determined area.<

No problem here, they are actually being sent to the scene

on a " standby " status, in case they are needed, same at a

fire scene....

But where there is a patient, possibly needing immediate

assistance, I am not going to *tell* responders to stage

anywhere.

It's simply not my decision to make.

I'm going to give them all the pertinent information I can

obtain and let the decision be theirs.

Weintraut

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[Guest guest]

Our dispatchers tell us what's going on but they also tell us to stand by and

they give us a location. Then they tell us when the scene is secure to move

in. They do this on all sucides and violent calls.

Tammy

[Guest guest]

that's the truth , hence the whole reasoning for this

questioning lol

Jeff Noonan

Dispatcher 14-42

Dutchess 911

[Guest guest]

>It's in our policy...and just because I *tell* them to stage, doesn't

necessarily mean they will do it. More often than not, they don't.

When you say it's in *our* policy, I'm assuming you mean the

dispatch centers policy.

If more often than not, responders don't do it, if they are making

the decision on whether or not to stage... and it is THEIR

decision to make...

Maybe your policy is in the CYA category.

I understand that, but to me it would make more sense that

your policy would say.... " The decision to stage will be made

by the responding agency. " and then spell out how that will

be handled.

Weintraut

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