Five years after 9/11, we continue to turn a deaf ear to gaps in interoperable communications" -- Senator Charles Schumer, (D New York)I know a thing or two about this. I live in a city where the emergency radios may have literally cost the lives of emergency personnel. I've been on the trauma team and had the ambulance show up with a patient that took four to the chest and their radios went dead and we had no warning a level I trauma was on the way.
I have also been on the other side of it - the paramedic arriving unannounced with a GSW that needs 4 units and a cardio-thoracic surgeon. Scariest of all, I've been on a chopper that was landing on a heli-pad only to bump heads with another chopper because the radios weren't compatible, and neither knew that the other was on approach, so no one diverted to the next nearest facility.
I took part in one last Mass Casualty Drill last spring, before leaving the hospital for academia, and it was fraught with missteps - because the communications broke down. We were using our private cell phones by the mid-way point because the radios weren't communicating properly. Mass Casualty Drills among emergency response personnel are the equivalent of war games for the military. You mobilize your resources to reveal the weaknesses so you are prepared should the unthinkable happen. It is our job to think of the unthinkable and protect the citizenry not just from the event, but from themselves and panic.
I know first-hand that interoperable communications are screwed up royally. Many FDNY personnel probably lost their lives on September 11, 2001 because they didn't hear warnings to get out of the World Trade Center that the Police radios broadcast; warnings that the buildings were crumbling.
The chaos and tragedy that can be compounded by faulty communications equipment and lack of a standard was illustrated again when Hurricane Katrina and the resulting flooding crippled New Orleans in 2005.
No one has asked me, and I am no longer a department coordinator on a trauma team and I no longer have to write mass casualty reports; but I have a couple of ideas the new congress should consider...
First of all, mandate a standard for emergency communications. This is one area where market forces are costing lives. Adopt a standard of parameters and mandate all equipment operate within those brackets. That this equipment should operate on a restricted and dedicated frequency is a given. As soon as a standard is decided on, the clock starts ticking and every emergency response organization in America has five years to get with the program, and offer incentives for prompt compliance.
Second: Cross-profession outreach. Cops need to know what the Fire Department, the ambulance crews and the ER staff actually do. If we have floated over and know something of the job our fellow responders are charged with, we can more effectively work together.
I keep hearing the right say that "9/11 Changed Everything" when on the ground, working in emergency response, I haven't seen a damned thing change for the better. In fact, if anything it has gotten worse and more layers have been added, that provide no end-use service.
We have had five years to get our collective act together, and instead of stepping up, we have been dithering around. Yeah, "9/11 changed everything" alright. It took a system that was already in need of overhaul out back and put two behind it's ear.
UPDATE: I can't get the permalinks to work in "new and improved" Blogger, but if I could I would link to Andrew at 618 Rants and Raves (I presume he counted 'em?) who has more to say about the deficits of our interoperable communications systems, and just like a cop, he lists things I didn't consider - which just proves my point that we need to cross-train our emergency personnel.
