# Grady doc blasts decision to cancel 911 call



## MMiz (Oct 23, 2008)

*Grady doc blasts decision to cancel 911 call*

The head of Grady hospital’s emergency medical services on Wednesday sharply criticized the decision to call off one of two medical crews responding to a teenager suffering a seizure last week at an Atlanta high school. Antoine Marc Williams, 16, went into cardiac arrest and later died.

*Read more!*


----------



## stephenrb81 (Oct 23, 2008)

I'm not getting the issue here....

Kid drops with chest pain, teacher calls 911, An ALS ambulance *and* a paramedic fire truck gets dispatched, then the fire truck gets cancelled.....that still leaves the ALS ambulance.


----------



## Paladin (Oct 23, 2008)

stephenrb81 said:


> I'm not getting the issue here....
> 
> Kid drops with chest pain, teacher calls 911, An ALS ambulance *and* a paramedic fire truck gets dispatched, then the fire truck gets cancelled.....that still leaves the ALS ambulance.



I agree as well.  What were the guys on the ALS ambulance doing the whole time?



> Bothwell said that sending both an ambulance and fire department personnel is a shared protocol between Grady and Atlanta 911 dispatchers in such high-priority medical emergencies as Williams’.



Only problem I see is with the FD for breaking protocol and possibly knowing wat the hell they are doing.


----------



## reaper (Oct 23, 2008)

Paladin said:


> I agree as well.  What were the guys on the ALS ambulance doing the whole time?
> 
> *It stated that the ambulance was on scene in 9 minutes. The engine may have been closer and able to be there in 5 minutes. That is why there is an uproar over the situation.*
> 
> Only problem I see is with the FD for breaking protocol and possibly knowing wat the hell they are doing.



Sorry, but how did the FD break protocol? They were canceled by dispatch, they did not cancel themselves!


----------



## firecoins (Oct 23, 2008)

We are assuming the news article got the story correct.  In my experience it never does.  We are most likely missing something.


----------



## mikie (Oct 23, 2008)

I'm going to need more facts before I can give an opinion. Cause this seems SNAFU :excl:


----------



## Paladin (Oct 23, 2008)

According to the article from what I understand, it seems that the ambulance company and the FD have a joint agreement that both respond in high priority calls.  If I am mistaken, I apologize.  What I am saying is though, if it is in fact an ALS unit ambulance on scene, shouldn't they be knowledge able enough to know what to do?  Once again I apologize if I am mistaken.  Just seems a little confusing to me.


----------



## Grady_emt (Oct 23, 2008)

Okey dokey, let's correct a few things.  First, Bothwell is not an MD, he is our soon to be resigned Director of EMS and Trauma Services.  Second, Care Ambulance has recently been contracted to provide 2 trucks during the day, one at night as needed based on system levels.  This will continue until we recieve some of our new trucks that are being built and are able to staff more physical trucks.   The crews on said care units were hadling granny totes and non-emergent transports, then our mgmt hands them a GEMS radio and BAM!!!! you're running high volume 911 calls with plenty of very sick patients.  We as an agency (and I personally) have had several other issues with the Care staff that I won't discuss here as I am going through the proper channels to resolve them.



This issue isn't that the engine got cancelled, we cancel fire all the time before they make a scene.  It's that they were cancelled by a "law enforcement" unit before any one had made pt contact fromt the engine or Care unit.  Why did the dispatcher let the engine be cancelled by a non medically trained L.E.O. is the issue.


----------



## Grady_emt (Nov 12, 2008)

Today the results of the investigation were announced.  Evidently Atlanta Police and Fire Departements (joint comm center) had recently switched dispatching/CAD software.  The dispatcher only intended to cancel APD as there was a School Resource Officer already onscene and APD was not needed.  When the APD dispatcher sent the cancellation messege to the APD unit's MDT, the messege was duplicated by a computer flaw and sent to the AFD Engine as well.  The AFD dispatcher acknowledged the cancellation over the radio and placed the engine back in service.  

Since the incident the system flaw has been re-designed.  AFD has also issued a new policy that units may only be cancelled by Fire Dispatch or Grady EMS dispatch or a Grady unit that is already onscene.  Also the dispatcher must note exactly what unit, or dispatcher ID who cancelled the AFD unit.  The old policy allowed them to only note Law Enforcement, Grady (not unit or dispatch) into the CAD for cancellations.  All-in-all a sad situation that revealed a flaw in the system.


----------



## WuLabsWuTecH (Nov 13, 2008)

Wow, that's one helluva computer glitch.  But having some programming experience, I can see how that might be easy to miss for those who designed the system.


----------



## MMiz (Nov 13, 2008)

It's unfortunate it happened, but at least they now have a policy and procedure in place to make sure it doesn't happen again.  I find it hard to believe it was a computer glitch, but it's surely the easiest person to blame.


----------



## MMiz (Nov 15, 2008)

There is a copy of the dispatch udio tapes online.


----------



## Grady_emt (Nov 16, 2008)

Shameless self plug here.  If you're bored and up at 3am, Grady EMS' radios are broadcast online on ScanFulton http://fulton.ga.scanamerica.us/index.php


----------



## Robby1974 (Nov 18, 2008)

*Sad story*

Wow. Sad story here. I lived in atlanta for several years. It's big. I could see how this could happen accidentially based on Grady_EMT's description (thanks for that btw). Sounds like the situation has been addressed and corrected but like others said is it really possible to know if a computer glitch is responsible?


----------

