By EMS1 Staff
BALTIMORE — EMS officials said injured patients hurt when a man opened fire on his co-workers benefitted from the change in police and EMS response due to a string of mass shootings.
CBS Baltimore said EMS providers were able to provide quick response to the injured after a shooting at Advanced Granite Solutions because new protocol gave them the ability to enter under police cover without having to wait until the threat was over.
“This is a complete mind shift, change,” Harford County deputy and EMS chief Jeremy Mothershed said. “Time is saving lives and we need to get in and stop that bleeding to saves those lives.”
Mothershed said he had just finished training the EMS providers who were with him on the scene.
“Just being able to have that dialogue and really not even having to say much of anything, and they got in and they did it,” he said.
The federal government recently called for a more aggressive response in mass casualty incidents, and EMS providers have been trained to enter under police cover. Teams of EMS crews and police officers went in together.
“Something that we would have probably never thought would ever have to be needed 10 years ago … our paramedics and EMTs wearing ballistic vests on an incident let alone as a daily requirement,” Mothershed said. “You could say it’s not the normal but it’s a necessary evil that we have to deal with right now.”
Mothershed said the response to the shooting will be used for future training.
“On that Wednesday, we proved that it can work. It’s no longer textbook.”