WBOY 12
FAIRMONT, Ore. — The Marion County Rescue Squad said it’s been busy this year responding to emergency calls.
But, it’s becoming concerned about a different kind of call.
“If it’s a flu like symptom type call, they can go to their primary care physician rather than call an emergency ambulance to go to the emergency room at the hospital. If we could cut down on the abuse of the system; emergency ambulance services should be used only for true emergencies,” said Lloyd White, Administrator of the Marion County Rescue Squad.
Anytime someone in Marion County dials 911 on their phone, their call is immediately routed to the Marion County 911 Communications Center on Pleasant Valley Road.
When someone dials 911 and they don’t have an emergency, White said it not only ties up the ambulance crew, but dispatchers at the communications center, too.
The dispatcher’s job is to answer phone calls, and send appropriate response units out, but White said some people treat it like a 411 phone number.
“It’s not an information center for the public. If you want somebody’s phone number or if you want to contact somebody, 911 is not the service to utilize for that,” he said.
Officials said cutting down on some of these frivolous calls can cut EMS costs, and free up the trained men and women who are waiting to respond to true critical emergencies, not someone who has a sore throat.
But, they also said if you really feel like you have an emergency, to dial 911.
“I mean if you feel the need to have an ambulance, I want you to call. I’d rather err on the side of patient treatment and patient care than I would not having an ambulance there,” said David Wilfong, chief of operations of the Marion County Rescue Squad.
Wilfong said an EMS crew will always respond if you call 911 and request an ambulance, but they’d like to see of the more trivial calls cut down.
Reprinted with permission from WBOY 12.