Brownsville Fire Department officials are asking members of the public to refrain from calling 911 and requesting emergency medical service for non-emergency reasons.
Speaking to reporters in front of Central Fire Station Monday morning in Brownsville, Deputy Fire Chief Cesar Pedraza said BFD has seen a roughly 20 percent increase in 911 EMS calls over the last week as the highly-transmissible Omicron COVID-19 variant has caused a surge of new infections throughout the city. Some 90 to 100 calls are coming in per day and only about one in 10 involve s an actual medical emergency requiring advanced life support and transport to a hospital, he said.
Many of the callers say they have recently tested positive for COVID and want an ambulance to take them to hospital to be checked out, even if they’re exhibiting no symptoms or mild symptoms, Pedraza said. In other cases, the caller has tested positive and wants an ambulance to transport multiple family members to the hospital for evaluation, he said.
“This is creating a backlog in the system,” Pedraza said. “We understand. We’re all scared. We all want to get service as soon as possible. But we also want to make sure that the ambulances are available for those true emergencies. “The extra 911 calls are also clogging hospital emergency rooms, since patients transported there have to be registered and seen by a doctor. Meanwhile, ambulances must be restocked, disinfected and refueled after each call.
“This is very time consuming,” Pedraza said. “Our goal is to have every ambulance available for the citizens when there is a true emergency. ”
The time to call 911 in COVID cases is when a person has persistent chest pain, trouble breathing, confusion and difficulty staying awake, or has blue-ish lips or face, which indicate a lack of oxygen, he said.
“If you have no … signs or symptoms, that really isn’t a true emergency ,” Pedraza said.
In those cases, people should find other means to get to the hospital or better yet contact their private healthcare provider, he said. Brownsville paramedics have been placed at the 911 call center and that calls are now being filtered, Pedraza said.
“So if you dial 911 and are simply requesting an evaluation, these 911 paramedics will evaluate you over the phone and they may refer you to your private care physician before we respond with an ambulance, or we may dispatch an engine with a couple of paramedics to evaluate you first,” he said.
Pedraza also recommended telehealth platforms in non-emergency situations, adding that the city’s website btxcares.com also provides important COVID information. The city’s COVID hotline, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, is (956) 394-0012.
“It’s COVID, and COVID scares people, and rightly so,” Pedraza said. “We want people to be safe. We want people to be proactive. We just want people to be smart about how they’re using the 911 system. The message we’re trying to put out is use it, just don’t abuse it. “
