Any city that still runs hot to all calls is antiquated and needs to come into the present.
We are having a similarly interesting problem in our county right now. In short, Fire is trying to keep their call volume up in order to keep the funding in our cash-strapped state of CA. In doing so, a common misconception amoung local dispatchers is to "Throw everything at the call code 3 becasue it is procedure." However, no such protocol really exists, it is just that after so long, our dispatchers believe that Fire must respond to every medical call in force. This is a problem that several people in the county are trying to put a stop to by educating the dispatchers... with little success. Example:
Last week a man calls 911 and says that he his heald up in his bathroom with his 3 y/o kid. His wife was ETOH and tossed his kid to the ground. So he fled to the bathroom and called 911. His wife was in the house with their other young child. Sheriff (2 closest deputies) responded Code 3 for about 3 minutes; until the RP stated that his wife had left teh house in a car (drunk). The deputies, seeing that there was no life threating conditions for the children, reduced code and continued. According to the RP, his kids were fine (no injury), however, the Sargeant on duty that night told dispatch to send out the ambo just to evaluate the kid... for liability and all that, although no one is saying that even a small push could result in injury to the kid. Ambo is 20 minutes down the road and starts out code 2 (in my highly mountain twisting roads code 3 almost never results in a faster response). BLS Fire was never requested by the ambo or the deputies. What does the dispatcher do? Follows ther self-proclaimed "protocols" and notifies fire dispatch. Note: SO dispatch handles county LE, SAR, and EMS. All Fire in the county is dispatched out by CALFIRE. Here's where it gets interesting:
The location of the call is on County Fire terf, therefore the volunteer station 2 minutes away gets toned out. However, CALFIRE manages the County Volunteer system and responds in addition; ther closest station is 15 minutes away. However, because the volunteer system is so unreliable now-a-days, the closest District (8-10 minutes away) also maintains a Mutual Aid system with the County. So what is the response to the call? 1 volunteer engine (2 FFs), 2 District Engines (4 FFs), and the state Engine (4 FFs). All MFR or EMT. All going code 3. Ambo, hearing the Fire code 3 response, and thinking they were missing something also upgraded to code 3. Meanwhile, the deputies are still code 2 with a longer response time. Result?
Volunteer engine gets on scene to "evaluate" the pt. The kid is fine (per medics who AMAed the pt. while mom went to jail). But instead of reducing or cancelling the response, all 4 engines head in code 3 and strip. Misappropriatation of resources? Overkill? In fire season, non-theless, they strip 4 engines and 10 FF's from a normal response readiness. Not to mention, do we want 4 engines and an ambo going code on the streets when 1 ambo (no l/s) is good enough?
This is nothing new in my county. Ever medical call, no matter how benign (stubbed toes and granny not feeling well for 2 days) gets at least 2 engines code 3, in addition to the ambo. In at least one section of teh count, the normal response is 2 engines, a utility, and a chief... to every medical call! Hence, there are more than a few ruffled features around here...
