I'm reluctant to pass judgment on the field crew when every press story quotes extensively the caller/dispatcher calls and none of them quote a single dispatcher/EMT exchange.


That's the one clear failure. This storm was unusual but not unprecedented: there needs to be procedures in place for supervisors to make sure the ball isn't being dropped when the dispatchers and field teams are stressed. In addition to shift hand-off issues they need to have an automatic review of any case that is open too long, or if there are too many calls rom one place in a short period.

And it means that Michael Huss, and the other political officials, had better have good answers as to where they were and what they were doing at the time. This was known to be a "all hands on deck" situation well in advance.


I"m also thinking: if it's not an emergency, and the caller won't come out, what are the chances that crew has better things to do, i.e. other emergencies? When the dispatcher told the crew that the (non-emergency) caller would not come to the vehicle, did the dispatcher mention other emergency calls? How did dispatch react to their decision to leave and go to another call?