How do you communicate ?

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DukeCityEMT6

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Just curious on how you communicate to other agencies or employees.


most of our guys and gals have nextel's. When help is needed we activate out home monitor tones or use the nextel. local fire dept does first responder and the dont mind helping. Some of us come and help when we can. A few will First Respond POV. Im a fan of nextel and radio its direct and easy. So what does ur service use ?
 
Nextel, county pagers and 800mhz radios

Jon
 
Screaming and shouting......... but really, pagers, handhelds, cellphones and main radios
 
County tones us out at HQ, the dispatcher sends out the inhouse crew and alpha-mates the appropriate people. If additional personnel are needed, the dispatcher activates the appropriate pagers (everyone for Alpha/Bravo or Echo calls, or ALS providers for Charlie, Delta, and Echo calls). Then we call in and tell the dispatcher who we are, what our cert is, and where we are and they tell us to go to scene or come to HQ.

Once on scene, almost all communication is by radio to dispatch. Occasionally we will use the cell phone on the ambulances, or our own, to call the dispatcher if it is a lengthy discussion.
 
open the window and yell!

vhf two way, nextell, cell phone. sometimes i'll need to grab a ff or leo if i dont have one of their radios since we only carry vhf and most of the pd's around here are uhf of 800t
 
Find their unit on the ambutracker, and pull up next to them and yell over the PA "Answer your dawddarn cell phone"!

We have a private freq other than 155.34 dispatch, cell phones of course, alpha pagers and computers in most ambulances (the old ones don't take kindly to the extra power usage). And mosr ambulances have a Monkeyrola MW520 Data Terminal with Premier MDC. The same system the Penna State Police use; we can send and get email and instant messages from other units and dispatch. It's expensive, but it pretty much makes dispatch via radio obsolete!
 
Radios. Occastionally a cell phone. But mainly Radios. Oh, and we have beepers for transfers. The hospitals page us, we call them. Nextel? hahaha.
 
Originally posted by rescuecpt@Apr 27 2005, 10:02 AM
County tones us out at HQ, the dispatcher sends out the inhouse crew and alpha-mates the appropriate people. If additional personnel are needed, the dispatcher activates the appropriate pagers (everyone for Alpha/Bravo or Echo calls, or ALS providers for Charlie, Delta, and Echo calls). Then we call in and tell the dispatcher who we are, what our cert is, and where we are and they tell us to go to scene or come to HQ.

Once on scene, almost all communication is by radio to dispatch. Occasionally we will use the cell phone on the ambulances, or our own, to call the dispatcher if it is a lengthy discussion.
Click to expand...
what are Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo calls???


Jon
 
Originally posted by MedicStudentJon@Apr 27 2005, 06:11 PM
what are Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo calls???
Click to expand...
Our EMD/Priority Dispatch in my County uses Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo to define the type of response.

My Corps responds in this way (increasing priority):

Alpha - BLS response, no lights or sirens, no excessive speed.
Bravo - BLS response, lights, no sirens, no excessive speed.
Charlie - ALS response, lights & sirens, moderate speed.
Delta - ALS response, lights & sirens, necessary speed.
Echo - ALS response, lights & sirens, as fast as you can safely get there, all hands.

In theory, I don't have to show up to an Alpha or Bravo if we have a BLS crew, but the way my crew runs (we are ALS/BLS) I go with just to make sure I'm not needed.

Calls are dispatched with an identifier #, response type, and clarifier, like this:

29-Bravo-1

29 - MVA
Bravo - BLS Response
1 - Call in by person not involved in incident (drive by)

31-Delta-3 Syncople episode
13-Alpha-1 Adult male diabetic episode
etc...

Echo's are usually cardiac & respiratory arrest (witnessed/recent)
DOAs are Bravo's

We have a flip chart system that the dispatcher flips through where you start by finding the complaint, then it tells you what questions to ask, such as "are they breathing", "are they awake", "has this ever happened before", etc which determine the type of response and the 2nd number. We have a copy of the list showing what everything is in the ambulance, so if I hear one I'm not familiar with, I look it up so that enroute I know it's a little old lady fall down go boom, or an OD, or whatever.

My crew's favorite is a 5-Alpha for STD... LOL - we had better NEVER get that one!
 
We use our portables if we need mutal aide we call county and they tone out whoever and they contact us on our channel. We have nextels in our ambulances but as far as I know they are just there for decoration for now lol.
 
Originally posted by MedicStudentJon+Apr 27 2005, 06:11 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (MedicStudentJon @ Apr 27 2005, 06:11 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-rescuecpt@Apr 27 2005, 10:02 AM
County tones us out at HQ, the dispatcher sends out the inhouse crew and alpha-mates the appropriate people.  If additional personnel are needed, the dispatcher activates the appropriate pagers (everyone for Alpha/Bravo or Echo calls, or ALS providers for Charlie, Delta, and Echo calls).  Then we call in and tell the dispatcher who we are, what our cert is, and where we are and they tell us to go to scene or come to HQ.

Once on scene, almost all communication is by radio to dispatch.  Occasionally we will use the cell phone on the ambulances, or our own, to call the dispatcher if it is a lengthy discussion.
Click to expand...
what are Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo calls???


Jon [/b][/quote]
We use those;

Alpha, Bravo - BLS - Minor Injuries, Pain - Class 3 Patients

Charlie - BLS/Medic Fly Car - Fractures, Undetermined Medicals - Class 3 or Class 2 Patients

Delta - ALS - Trauma, Cardiac, Respiratory, Diabetic - Class 1 Patients

Echo - BLS/MICU - Cardiac, Respiratory or All systems Arrest - Class 5 (well, almost)


They are dispatched as "Alpha Priority", Etc.
 
i'm used to a numbered priority system

p3-no lights/sirens. regular transfer

p2- lights, intermittent use of siren, get there but dont kill anyone doing it

p1- lights sirens yelling screaming driving fast enough to blister the paint on the rig
(p1 is usually reserved for witnessed arrests, major trauma, and of course, ped calls)

we'll be dispatched either p2 or p1 and we can transport at our discretion
 
I like the screaming at one another thing but normally that don't work so we grab what ever radio we can find and start talken.
 
Smoke signals. <_<
 
Originally posted by ECC@May 23 2005, 10:06 AM
Smoke signals. <_<
Click to expand...
Same here.
 
Hmm, I thought I replied to this one.

We have portables, mobiles, and MDTs.

Our Portables have "Unit <> Unit" meaning only people in the field will hear, not dispatch. They also have a dispatch channel. ALS units have two additional radios, one that has all PD and FF stations in the county on it, and other one for the county's med control.

We use our Mobile Data Terminals for all all non-emergency traffic. It's a touch-screen laptop.

That's about it.
 
We're dispatched by the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, which dispatches the fire departments for 10 cities in our area. The 9 paid departments in the system operate an "automatic aid" system where, if one city's units are already committed when a call comes in, units from a neighboring city can be automatically dispatched.

There are also a number of UHF tactical frequencies through Verdugo that we have access too. We generally use our own VHF freq, but if we have units from other departments on-scene, we can all use one of the UHF freqs.

Since we're volunteer, we don't participate in the automatic aid, but we can still request additional units through Verdugo if needed. Also, if we just need additional ambulances (say, for example, an MCI), we can request them from AMR through Verdugo (we call Verdugo, and they'll relay to AMR's dispatch).

We're also able to communicate directly with our police and with the local SAR team as we have their frequencies programmed into our base and handheld radios. We also have some of the USFS frequencies programmed in for use during wildfires.

There's talk of all fire agencies in the county switching over to new radios programmed with all the avilable frequencies so that any agency can talk to any other agency, but I'll believe that when I see it.
 
Originally posted by SafetyPro@May 24 2005, 05:07 PM
We're dispatched by the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, which dispatches the fire departments for 10 cities in our area. The 9 paid departments in the system operate an "automatic aid" system where, if one city's units are already committed when a call comes in, units from a neighboring city can be automatically dispatched.

There are also a number of UHF tactical frequencies through Verdugo that we have access too. We generally use our own VHF freq, but if we have units from other departments on-scene, we can all use one of the UHF freqs.

Since we're volunteer, we don't participate in the automatic aid, but we can still request additional units through Verdugo if needed. Also, if we just need additional ambulances (say, for example, an MCI), we can request them from AMR through Verdugo (we call Verdugo, and they'll relay to AMR's dispatch).

We're also able to communicate directly with our police and with the local SAR team as we have their frequencies programmed into our base and handheld radios. We also have some of the USFS frequencies programmed in for use during wildfires.

There's talk of all fire agencies in the county switching over to new radios programmed with all the avilable frequencies so that any agency can talk to any other agency, but I'll believe that when I see it.
Click to expand...
We really are pretty much the same. except the direct to PD (Who wants to talk to them anyway ;) ?)

UFDA 1/2 way down the page

Each department gets automatic aid as needed and the 2 volly departments are helped out as needed (not always personnel to staff the rigs)
 
Originally posted by SafetyPro@May 24 2005, 06:07 PM
We're dispatched by the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, which dispatches the fire departments for 10 cities in our area. The 9 paid departments in the system operate an "automatic aid" system where, if one city's units are already committed when a call comes in, units from a neighboring city can be automatically dispatched.

There are also a number of UHF tactical frequencies through Verdugo that we have access too. We generally use our own VHF freq, but if we have units from other departments on-scene, we can all use one of the UHF freqs.

Since we're volunteer, we don't participate in the automatic aid, but we can still request additional units through Verdugo if needed. Also, if we just need additional ambulances (say, for example, an MCI), we can request them from AMR through Verdugo (we call Verdugo, and they'll relay to AMR's dispatch).

We're also able to communicate directly with our police and with the local SAR team as we have their frequencies programmed into our base and handheld radios. We also have some of the USFS frequencies programmed in for use during wildfires.

There's talk of all fire agencies in the county switching over to new radios programmed with all the avilable frequencies so that any agency can talk to any other agency, but I'll believe that when I see it.
Click to expand...
From what I heard, this worked very well with the minor, little, incident with the 2 commuter trains a few months back.

What about direct communications with LAFD (City) and LACoFD????

Jon
 
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