Response was overboard

When Unicep Packaging Inc. made its 911 call for a blown 50-cent fuse which made a puff of smoke and one person felt faint (it wasn't stated that the employee was faint from the smoke), the events thereafter demonstrated what changes need to be made in the system.

To call out five EMS units (Sandpoint, Schweitzer, Westside, Sagle, and Priest River) was an absolute waste of Bonner County assets. Even the personnel working on the malfunctioning machine had no problems health-wise (Dr. Sneddden's letter). Then to ask for blood pressure and other checks unrelated to the incident was an unwarranted activity that ought to have been performed by their family doctors.

The EMS system is not a traveling medical clinic. The “E” in EMS means emergency. As a PR activity, the EMTs would probably be happy to do blood pressure checks on a prearranged schedule but so would the public health department. Nine employees taken to BGH? Yeah, right, they wanted the rest of the day off! Longer long weekend for them.

Since the Dispatch part of 911 was shifted to the Bonner County Sheriff's Office from Bob Howard's, one would hope that the responses for 911 would be reviewed, analyzed and changed for the better. There are protocols for mass casualty situations which are not top secret and those at the top [starting with the Bonner County commissioners and the offline unavailable EMS medical director ought to see that they are established and implemented. Coordination and responsibilities in a real mass casualty disaster need to be rehearsed and established prior, not during the real thing or as an afterthought.

For those of us who burn slash piles and invariably get a few whiffs of smoke, can we get EMS to standby?

PETER D. HERAPER

Sandpoint