Brewer asks about non-emergency 911 calls and public education
Council Member Gale Brewer asks about calls that are not true emergencies and how to educate the public on alternatives. Miano says people often believe arriving by ambulance gets them seen faster, but triage is based on condition, and FDNY uses telehealth and education to divert appropriate calls.
Thank you very much.
I have a couple questions.
One is, I know you have addressed already a little bit, I don't know what you call them, calls that are not emergencies, but people...
Literally, you're sometimes just calling an ambulance to get to the hospital.
So how you heard earlier some suggestions maybe how to address that.
People don't read.
They don't pay attention.
It's not easy to address.
But is it about what's the percentage of...
Calls that maybe could be handled elsewhere.
I think you have a pretty high number for that.
So I'm just trying to think of how we can work on that together, because I know people that do they call the ambulance when really they don't need it.
Yeah, I think that there is, as stated earlier, there is a misconception of if I arrive by ambulance, I will be seen at the hospital sooner.
However, you know, as we've as we've spoken.
Multiple times today, there is a triage process.
So it's not how you got there, it's why you're there, right?
And, but I think the main thing is that someone who calls 911, I would believe thinks they are having an emergency.
So I don't know if we want to discourage people from calling 911, but as stated, better educate on what an emergency, what are the signs of a heart attack?
What are the signs of someone having
an anaphylactic reaction, right?
And I think if we educate and start young, start early and educating on what an emergency looks like, it will help us later on.
I also think that, you know, we do have some other things in place like discussed, right?
We do have some telehealth stuff where we can, you know, transfer calls to a physician and speak to the physician, you know, without sending an ambulance.
But I think that that is new.
Relatively new and it's generational.
And I think that when people right now want medical care, they want to see someone in front of them, right?
And I think that as that becomes more normalized, it'll also assist us in being able to divert some of those calls to 911 to that type of care.
Okay, I think we'd love to work with you on the education of that in our newsletters, in our forums, et cetera, because I know people who I think abuse the system.