By John Buzbee
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A policy change officials hope will curb unnecessary risk to the response of medical emergencies means that the lights and sirens of many ambulances are going dark and silent.
The change, which took effect at the start of November, is based on research cited by city officials that found responses by emergency medical services were not significantly helped by using lights and sirens. In a majority of cases, the research suggests, responding without using either has proven to be the safest option.
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“There’s a time and place it’s appropriate,” said Virginia Beach EMS Chief Jason Stroud. “It does not save as much time as people think.”
The difference in response time for Virginia Beach EMS was found to be between 2 and 3 minutes, he said. The risk of traffic accidents nearly doubled while lights shined and sirens blared.
Operating with increased risk that saves just a few minutes doesn’t usually outweigh the possible danger to other motorists. Stroud said most calls aren’t helped by those extra few minutes saved anyway.
Now over a month in, the changes appear to be successful and has been met with staff support. Stroud said the response can be upgraded to use lights and siren, based on the case and circumstances, like severity of an injury or age of a patient.
Just 27 EMS calls were upgraded in November, Stroud said. In two-thirds of those cases, the patient refused transport. Virginia Beach EMS responds to around 58,000 emergency calls per year, with 42,000 or so requiring a trip to a hospital.
Stroud said he encourages dispatchers to err on the side of caution and to use their discretion in upgrading a call.
“We have always allowed crews to respond without lights and sirens to lower priority incidents. This just now requires it, instead of leaving it to provider discretion,” Ali Weatherton-Shook, Virginia Beach public information liaison, said in an emailed statement. “Virginia Beach EMS has not been immune to ambulance accidents, and have had two this year requiring providers to be taken to the hospital.”
Vehicle crashes in the wake of a rushing ambulance are heightened and can delay other first responders, Stroud said.
Ambulances are barred by the city from exceeding 20 miles an hour over the posted speed limit. They are required to abide by the limits posted in school zones. On roads with a speed limit of 25 miles per hour, ambulance aren’t allowed to exceed that limit by 10 miles per hour. Virginia Beach EMS personnel take advantage devices that can control traffic lights.
The new policy does not apply to private ambulances operating within Virginia Beach; Stroud said private ambulances operating on the city’s behalf through a partnership program, however, are subject to it.
Weatherton-Shook said the policy change will not impact other departments, like police and fire, whom already have systems for when and when not to use lights and sirens. Motorists should react to first responders using lights and sirens as they had before, by slowing down and pulling to the shoulder of the road. Stroud said no change in behavior is needed if an ambulance without its lights on is encountered.
Virginia Beach joins other metros, like Raleigh and Charlette in North Carolina and Fort Worth in Texas, in limiting the usage of lights and sirens for its ambulances, outside of responding to calls deemed critical.
Does your department have a limited lights-and-sirens policy? Share the details.
EMS1 readers respond
“I am curious what kind of EMD this system is using. I am very familiar with the EMD process and in our small system (4500 calls per year) a majority (over 50%) are still code 3 calls. So I am wondering how an agency that runs 58k calls annually only has 27 code 3 responses during an entire month …"
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