We’re going to start sending brief messages related to the coronavirus pandemic. Please share with all public safety personnel, including law enforcement, fire, EMS, EMA, and dispatchers. Remember, “There is no try.”
- Conserve PPE – all infectious disease PPE is running low; some areas are already completely out of certain items. Re-using the good stuff is better than using something makeshift.
- Social distancing applies to us, too. As one example, having a dozen people crammed into the EMS room at the hospital is not a great idea.
- Do you need to put a mask on your patient? It depends. A shooting victim with a fever needs a mask. A patient with a sprained ankle and no symptoms of COVID does not. Protect yourself, but use good judgment, and remember CONSERVE. We’re running out of surgical masks, too.
- People have called agencies to take a patient to the ED for COVID testing. If all the person wants is testing, that should be done elsewhere. Not the ED. And not by EMS.
- Can EMS personnel get tested for COVID? The rules changed in the last few days: Yes.
- Public safety personnel (LE, EMS, fire) who are symptomatic can be tested if their physician orders the test. We are in “Tier 2” for testing according to ODH.
- Unless actually hospitalized, tests for our personnel are not run by the ODH labs; they go to one of the approved private labs, which means it takes an extra day or two to get results.