As emergency responders on the job, we are responsible for the response, detection, on-scene care, care in-transit, transfer to definitive care, and reporting of our patients injuries or illnesses. When the star of life was created in 1977, each spoke of the star was given a term that corresponded with an aspect of our responsibility.
Naples News (www.naplesnews.com) in Collier County Florida presented a cose that was rebroadcast on www.EMSWORLD.com regarding the loss an an adult due to circumstances the parents state were unacceptable. In review of this case, a 25 year old male patient went into cardiac arrest which prompted his parent to dial 911. At this point the contact made to the emergency services system was consistent with any call. The call was made by the mother of the patient after the father found the son struggling to breath in his bed. The call was then answered on the other line by the 911 call process who took all the information and then started the process of notification. In this instance this is where the father brought into account the system failed.
The dispatch information went out to the appropriate services just 1 minute following the answering of the 911 call placed by the patients mother. It wasn't for another 6 minutes when the ambulance acknowledged the call and began their response resulting in a 13 minute response time. From the report, the community operates emergency response much like other large communities in that it provides a tiered response. When EMS arrived on scene, the fire department personnel were already assisting the patient until the ambulance arrived.
Now, the outcome of this call is that the son passed away during this response and the father has approached county commission to fault EMS response as the reason for the death. From the report it is difficult to tell, but the report states that the delay was caused by responders in their station doing clean-up. I have been involved in emergency response for almost 12 years. In that time I have worked as a volunteer firefighter, paid firefighter, paid EMT, paid paramedic. I have worked in urban areas, and rural areas. I have worked with governmental agencies and for-profit services, and one thing about them all...dispatching is all different. The place I worked the longest was one of the best as far as dispatching calls. Our dispatchers would be kind enough to turn on the lights in the middle of the night and allow us to get time to get up before quickly reading the address so we didn't have to delay our response asking again. I have worked in places where they give you a voice pager that made an awful sound ensuring you didn't miss the call, and I have working in other busy services that you had to rely on hearing your unit number. Have I ever missed a call on the initial dispatch...yes, power has gone out, sounds have overwhelmed the radio, but we have never been 6 minutes over on a call.
Now responders were also on-scene, did the ambulance transport cause that much more harm, it is really unknown. We are taught about the golden hour in trauma, and specific times for stroke patients and STEMI calls, but we can never be sure what the magic number is going to be. We have to embody the principles of the Star of Life and ensure we always do our best.
Take Care and Stay Safe
Combomedic
twitter.com/dsblev
Comments
Post a Comment