Rescue Response Policies....

[Guest guest]

I'm reaching out looking for dispatch centers that dispatch for rescue

squads, amongst their responsibilities. If that doesn't describe you, you

can deploy that delete button now and not read the rest of this madness.

If any of you have policies in hand that govern the actual dispatch of the

squad, would you mind sharing ? What I'm aiming at is the actual point at

which they are allowed to roll to the call, lights/sirens, etc.

We are having an 'issue' with the squad we just assumed dispatch for, that

are taking it upon themselves to self deploy (its a university squad

contracted to cover the neighboring city; the city gets the call from the

911 psap and automatically sends a medical assist engine company, then they

call here for the ambulance....the actual delay is about 15 seconds between

sets of tones. The engine company is closer anyway.....which is why they

go...but the squad is rolling on the med assist tones without waiting for us

to send out their call).

They are not " getting it " with us pointing out the liability they are

incurring, nevermind that we, their dispatchers, need to know the resources

available for response, and if they self-dispatch before the call is

dispatched, then we've essentially " lost control " .

The history here is that for the last 20-something years of their existence,

they dispatched for themselves, but that responsibility was recently given

to us, the university police department. The reasons were many, but somewhat

availability (it releases them from having to staff a dispatch spot, and

since they are all volunteer, they won't be going out of service as much if

they don't have a full crew) and the rest feasability (we're here anyway and

are much more highly trained than they are in dispatch procedure/protocol).

Thus we have a major case of " this is the way we've always done it " going

on.

If anyone has a actual policy that states : the squad will not jump calls /

deploy a code response prior to call being dispatched (whether thats a page

or radio tones or whatever) - except for extenuating circumstances such as

radio system failure, for example - I'd be greatly appreciative if you'd

share (fax # attn: Diane Gagnon). I've already spoken to the

local EMS district, and now we're trying to arrange a meeting amongst all

the players here to try to get a policy in place.....we've tried addressing

it each time it happens with the individual crew chiefs, but they just

" ain't gittin' it " .

Much thanks if anyone can help,

Diane Gagnon

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Diane M. Gagnon

Dispatcher

University of Vermont Police Services

http://www.uvm.edu/police

" Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication "

reasoned Leonardo da Vinci