By EMS1 Staff
SARATOGA COUNTY, N.Y. — A policy change has been made to give paramedics more freedom to decide when to enter a scene instead of waiting on police.
The Daily Gazette reported that under the new policy, dispatchers will not instruct paramedics to wait for police if there is a potential safety issue, but instead inform them of potential safety issues so they can decide whether or not to enter.
Saratoga County EMS Coordinator Mike McEvoy said the policy change has been in the works for over a year and was prompted by a heroin overdose call. A mother called after finding her 13-year-old daughter suffering an overdose.
The paramedics waited around the corner for the police to arrive, and the father of the girl saw them and told the mother, who said the paramedics seemed to be hiding from the situation instead of saving lives.
“She had a good point,” McEvoy said. “There’s no danger in a scene like that.”
Officials decided paramedics should have more say than the dispatcher over when they should go in.
“That’s kind of what we’re doing, shifting that responsibility onto the paramedics to make the decision based on the information we have,” McEvoy said.
The policy listed situations where paramedics can make the decision, and they include no longer active assault scenes, combative patients, overdoses, psychiatric calls and calls for stab wounds and gunshot wounds.
Scenes that involve an active assault or weapons actively being used will still require police assistance.