Tuesday, November 20, 2012

** New York EMS, police, and fire dispatchers under public scrutiny for Hurricane Sandy work

** Indiana ambulance service to randomly test medics for drug and alcohol;EMS director says screening is an idea whose time has come

UNITED STATES NEWS

** New York EMS dispatchers, as well as operators for the other emergency services, are being criticized for their work during Hurricane Sandy. That is the word from the Daily Mail (Adam Shergold/November 19) which said residents are now complaining they were largely unable to contact emergency help during the blow due to an overwhelmed system. According to the newspaper, many help hails were not answered, while those that were were often diverted to a 311 non emergency line. Squabbles also broke out amongst emergency services dispatchers about the level of priority for individual calls. Normally New York 911 deals with 30,000 calls each day;during the October 29th hurricane the stat was 20,000 per hour. A spokesman for the city’s police department defended call takers’ handling of the situation. Paul Browne blamed residents for glitches, saying many people just kept hanging up and redialling when they did not get through, creating a jam. In addition, Browne said a large number of those seeking 911 assistance should have dialled for non emergency aid instead.

** EMS employees at an Indiana ambulance service in Greene County will have to undergo random alcohol and drug testing. The Greene County Daily News (Nick Schneider/November 19) said the service, which employs 26 full time staff and 15 part timers, will use an Indianapolis lab to conduct the screening. Costing $61 for drug look-sees and $31 for alcohol detection, the approach is not being motivated by an specified incident. EMS Director David Doane told the newspaper he just felt it was time to scrutinize his employees.