Friends and Neighbors, Duties and Responsibilities

A timely first-person report from Susquehanna County (Pa.) on the unforeseen (and to some extent unforeseeable) difficulties in coping, personally as well as professionally, with torrential rain, widespread floods, and other disasters.

The Sorting – Life-or-Death Decisions on the Scene

When requests for aid overwhelm the resources available, whether the medical situation occurs in a small town or a big city, life-or-death decisions must be made – immediately, in many cases – about which patient receives immediate help and who waits. During day-to-day operations triage is largely a function assigned to the 9-1-1 call center. The alternative to prioritization is to answer calls sequentially.

The Hospital Incident Command System – No Longer HEICS

The professional guidelines developed to help the nation’s hospitals cope with a broad spectrum of emergencies have been so successful and so well-received that they have been expanded, revised, and refined to encompass non-emergency situations as well.

EMS Professionals and the CERTification of Volunteers

The willingness of so many citizen volunteers to serve on Community Emergency Response Teams adds an extra dimension of capability to already overworked (and sometimes overwhelmed) EMS staffs. There are a few precautions also worth noting, though.

Protecting Our Protectors: Defending America’s First Responders

It is unconscionable that the “American heroes” who protect “our homes, our businesses, and our communities” have not been given the tools they need to carry out their dangerous jobs. Now they will be, thanks to the initiatives pushed by this legislator.
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