Post by scannerman5555 on Apr 30, 2009 5:52:45 GMT -5
;D ;D swine flu ;D ;D
from delagi and suffolk remsco:
Beginning the afternoon of 4/29/09, Suffolk County FRES Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD) will be asking additional questions of callers presenting with respiratory problems (Protocol 6), chest pains (Protocol 10), headache (Protocol 18), and general illness/sick person (Protocol 26) to gain relevant information to provide to all first responders. Ideally, this information will be relayed to you while you are enroute to a call, using the term "FC Response." FC represents the words fever and cough and is only an advisory that the patient to whom you are responding has signs/symptoms consistent with influenza, and that appropriate universal precautions should be taken. Please see the attached letter below for further details.
Requests to all other Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) across the county have been issued, and we expect that other dispatch centers will implement these procedures over the next several days. Reminder that if you are transporting a patient with the FC Response designation, you should communicate this to hospital emergency department's via radio, as soon as possible after signal 18, and well before arrival at the emergency department. You should conclude your presentation with words to assure that they are aware that you will be waiting for them in the ambulance to direct you to the appropriate entry point into the hospital to avoid cross contamination potential.
Additionally, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services and the emergency departments of all hospitals in Suffolk County have an open and continuous line of communication for patients appearing with flulike symptoms. We are tracking these patients, including if they were brought to emergency departments by ambulance. Follow-up with exposed or potentially exposed EMS providers will be provided in accordance with protocols and policies established by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the NY State Department of Health.
Beginning the afternoon of 4/29/09, Suffolk County FRES Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD) will be asking additional questions of callers presenting with respiratory problems (Protocol 6), chest pains (Protocol 10), headache (Protocol 18), and general illness/sick person (Protocol 26) to gain relevant information to provide to all first responders. Ideally, this information will be relayed to you while you are enroute to a call, using the term "FC Response." FC represents the words fever and cough and is only an advisory that the patient to whom you are responding has signs/symptoms consistent with influenza, and that appropriate universal precautions should be taken. Please see the attached letter below for further details.
Requests to all other Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) across the county have been issued, and we expect that other dispatch centers will implement these procedures over the next several days. Reminder that if you are transporting a patient with the FC Response designation, you should communicate this to hospital emergency department's via radio, as soon as possible after signal 18, and well before arrival at the emergency department. You should conclude your presentation with words to assure that they are aware that you will be waiting for them in the ambulance to direct you to the appropriate entry point into the hospital to avoid cross contamination potential.
Additionally, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services and the emergency departments of all hospitals in Suffolk County have an open and continuous line of communication for patients appearing with flulike symptoms. We are tracking these patients, including if they were brought to emergency departments by ambulance. Follow-up with exposed or potentially exposed EMS providers will be provided in accordance with protocols and policies established by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the NY State Department of Health.