CLARKESVILLE – Habersham County public safety leaders this week gave an overview of what callers reporting possible COVID-19 symptoms can expect if they seek help from emergency responders.
Habersham County E-9-1-1 Central Communications has updated its E-9-1-1 call questionnaire form to include questions regarding callers’ travel and potential flu-like symptoms.
“We just ask that people be patient with us,” said Habersham County E-9-1-1/Emergency Management Agency Director Lynn Smith. “We are short-staffed, and obviously it’s going to get shorter, I’m sure. I do have people calling out just as a precaution.”
Additionally, the county has a dedicated COVID-19 policy.
“We did implement a plan for 9-1-1, and I do believe it’s the first in the state,” Smith said. “I have sent it out to our field coordinators so they can share it with other counties as well. We’re just trying to stay ahead of everything.”
Effective this week, the temperatures of all Habersham County Emergency Services personnel are being taken when they arrive for work and when they leave.
“Anything 100.4 or higher, they’re going home,” said Emergency Services Director Chad Black.
HCES also has changed how it responds to medical calls involving possible COVID-19 cases.
“If we go to a call, we’re limiting our engine responses if it is a person that has signs and symptoms and has been out of the country and meets that criteria, we’re not sending an engine,” Black said. “We’re sending a med unit only and a supervisor.”
After arriving on scene, protective measures will be taken by medical responders before encountering the patient. That includes donning personal protective equipment (PPE) and having a supervisor coat them with Bioesque Solution, a disinfectant spray that kills the coronavirus, H1N1 and other viruses and harmful bacteria.
“Once we get there, our two people on the med unit will put their PPE on and the supervisor will spray them with the Bioesque, which will provide that coating on them. If anything gets on them, it’s going to have a kill time of four minutes,” Black said.
The means medical staff will be on scene for a time before approaching the patient’s home.
“We’ll only let the medic go in if the patient is conscious and stable,” Black said.
The medic will give the patient a mask and if he or she can walk, the paramedic will assist the patient to the ambulance.
“The EMT or the other driver will never touch the patient,” Black said. “We’ll work with Habersham Medical Center and let them know what we’re coming with. Our personnel will stay in their PPE until they [decontaminate] the ambulance. After that’s over, then the supervisor will hit them with the [Bioesque] product again and wait five minutes, to make sure we get that four-minute kill time. They’ll get out of their PPE, we’ll red-bag and hit them in their uniform with it [Bioesque].”
After that, the medical crew will return to their assigned station, take a shower, put on a clean uniform and wash the one worn on the previous call.
“It’s almost as 100% as you can get with this product and having their PPE on,” Black said. “We feel very confident.”
Black said what concerns him is patients like in Cobb County, where the initial call was for abdominal pain.
“It was eight days later after two responses out there that seven firemen had to be quarantined because they didn’t know,” Black said.
Black said he has talked with city fire chiefs, telling them if they get inside a home on a call without realizing the patient is exhibiting symptoms, Habersham County Emergency Services will send a supervisor to spray them down with Bioesque before they get back in their apparatus.
As another preventative measure, relatives will not be allowed to ride to the hospital in an ambulance.
“We’re also going to try to restrict family members from riding in the ambulance, if we can,” Black said. “If we can get them to follow in a vehicle versus in our ambulance that’s what we’re going to do.”
Additionally, Black said family members are discouraged from going to the hospital with an individual who is exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
“If anybody has signs or symptoms of this, then family members do not need to go to the hospital – if we transport,” Black said.
Most hospitals already have total visitor restrictions in place, especially for those who have been exposed to a person exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.
