| On
July 1, 1998, the Indian
River County Sheriff's Office Public Safety Dispatch and
the Indian River County EMS entered into a joint venture to
implement the Emergency Medical Dispatch program. The flip card
system, established by the APCO
International Inc., has allowed us to customize the cards
for our community under the approval of the medical director.
APCO follows the National Standards for EMD, and in most cases,
exceeds the minimum standards required. By using the locally
approved EMD guide cards, the telecommunicator can quickly and
properly determine the nature of the call, the priority of the
call, dispatch the appropriate response and provide the caller
with instructions to help treat the patient until the responding
EMS unit arrives. This protocol is used on every medical call.
Through the use of this program many lives have been saved and
personal anxieties are alleviated.
Nationally,
statistics have shown running lights and sirens on every call,
increases the probability of accidents and endangers the very
public in which we are empowered to protect. Emergency Medical
Dispatch has allowed for EMS responses to be downgraded due
to a lower priority of a medical condition (non life threatening).
A lower priority is obtained through the process of interviewing
the caller by asking a series of specific questions to determine
if the patient is in distress or is experiencing a minor medical
condition. Between July 1998 and February 1999, records show
that EMS responded Code 1 (no lights and sirens) to 25.86%
of the calls, thus reducing liability and potential for mishap.
To further decrease liability, when transporting patients
to the hospital, lights and sirens are only used when the
patient is unstable or serious. |
