Charles County adopts hot/cold EMS response

StadEMS3

StadEMS3

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Charles County Department of Emergency Services (DES) is always looking for ways to keep our community and our responders as safe as possible. Starting in March, DES is using a new system called Hot/Cold Dispatching. This means when a call is dispatched for a routine or non-emergency call, the ambulance will no longer turn on emergency lights and sirens on its way to the call. This dispatching method, which is used by many jurisdictions in the state, will further protect our residents and first responders from the risk of ambulance-related crashes. Lights and sirens will continue to be utilized for emergencies when life-saving care is needed as soon as possible.

As an EMS responder I'm a little on the fence about this. Some like me downplay their medical issues because they don't want to make a scene or think it's not that bad. However the sheer amount of BS calls we get makes me hope that the BS callers find alternative ways to get their issues resolved instead of calling 911 for every little non emergency problem they think they have. Oh my superscription ran out, abnormal labs, tick bite, stubbed toe, cold for 2 weeks...
 
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frequentflier

frequentflier

happy to be living
StadEMS3 said:
Charles County Department of Emergency Services (DES) is always looking for ways to keep our community and our responders as safe as possible. Starting in March, DES is using a new system called Hot/Cold Dispatching. This means when a call is dispatched for a routine or non-emergency call, the ambulance will no longer turn on emergency lights and sirens on its way to the call. This dispatching method, which is used by many jurisdictions in the state, will further protect our residents and first responders from the risk of ambulance-related crashes. Lights and sirens will continue to be utilized for emergencies when life-saving care is needed as soon as possible.

As an EMS responder I'm a little on the fence about this. Some like me downplay their medical issues because they don't want to make a scene or think it's not that bad. However the sheer amount of BS calls we get makes me hope that the BS callers find alterantive ways to get their issues resolved instead of calling 911 for every little non emergency problem they think they have. Oh my superscription ran out, abnormal labs, tick bite, stubbed toe, cold for 2 weeks...
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StadEMS3, I admire you for what you do and have done for a long time.
It's unfortunate that you have to be a taxi service to so many non emergency calls. I always fear a REAL emergency (cardiac arrest, car accident) happens when you are transporting Granny with a finger cut (who has three people living with her that could have driven her to a doctor). The REAL emergency suffers.
 
PrchJrkr

PrchJrkr

Long Haired Country Boy
Ad Free Experience
Patron
Mommy Dearest experienced a fall in her kitchen on Monday evening requiring EMS to get her up out of the floor and to the ER. She was alone in her kitchen at the time, so I didn't know the severity of her injuries. She would've fought me, had I tried to lift her. The Techs got her up and assisted her in walking to the other end of the house to "her" chair. They seemed surprised when she requested transport to the hospital, but obliged.

She's 88, so even a small fall can be traumatic to her frail body. She's still at St Mary's Hospital for that and other issues we wouldn't know about, had she not fallen.

May God bless all EMS Techs, especially our volunteers.
 
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