Expect the unexpected: PSAP planning for atypical events is challenging, but necessary

By Brent Boykin

There are dozens of emergency response scenarios that public safety answering points (PSAPs) encounter on a regular basis, from structure fires and traffic accidents to domestic violence incidents and muggings to drug overdoses and accidental falls. These types of events happen with such regularity that most public safety agencies have policies in place that govern how the response will play out, and have trained their personnel well to ensure that the response goes according to plan.

But what about those events that happen so infrequently they barely register on the radar screen? Or those events that fall outside the scope of a PSAP’s normal responsibilities? Or those events that start out being another agency’s responsibility, but due to a turn of events revert to the PSAP? A failure to take such events into account could have disastrous consequences for the citizen in need, the PSAP and the public safety agency it serves.

Here’s an example: Let’s say that a citizen who needs supplemental oxygen to combat the effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is running short on canisters because he neglected to order a new supply on time. He knows that this doesn’t constitute an emergency, so he doesn’t dial 911, but instead calls his health-care provider, who arranges for a rush shipment to be delivered to his doorstep the next day. But overnight it starts to snow—and keeps snowing, dropping more than a foot onto the ground by sunrise. Then the wind kicks up dramatically, as the snow continues to fall, creating blizzard conditions so severe in some areas that whiteout conditions exist. In just a few more hours, nearly two feet of snow are on the ground. The snow plows are having great difficulty trying to keep up, so roads quickly are becoming treacherous, in some cases impassible.

This is just the beginning. As the storm rages on, a pileup involving three dozen vehicles has occurred—including two semi-trailers and a gasoline tanker that overturned. Meanwhile, several structure fires have broken out, caused by faulty space heaters, and a riot is ensuing at a supermarket that ran out of essential items. And in the midst of this chaos, a call is placed to the PSAP from the COPD patient, who had just been informed by the delivery service that the shipment of oxygen canisters won’t be arriving today as scheduled due to the weather conditions—and he is just a few hours away from being completely out of this life-sustaining substance, a situation that, at least in his mind, now constitutes an emergency.

So, how is the PSAP going to handle this? Will it decide to dispatch an ambulance to provide a temporary supply of oxygen to the patient and then transport him to a hospital emergency room where he will stay until the crisis passes? Will it contact the public works department to see whether a snow plow could transport the oxygen canisters to the man’s home? Will it decide to do nothing because it needs to triage the many emergency situations that are popping up all over the jurisdiction, and the COPD patient’s event is very low on the priority scale. Or will it do nothing because the event doesn’t fall under the PSAP’s defined responsibilities?

A clear-cut policy governing such a scenario, and effective training, would make it much easier for the PSAP staff to make the appropriate decision. But that’s easier said than done.