Maplewood Fire Department revises emergency medical service protocols

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood Fire Chief Michael Dingelstedt recently announced revised protocols for emergency medical services in response to concerns raised following the lengthy response time when an 8-year-old suffered a seizure on March 23.

The Maplewood Fire Department completed a review of dispatching procedures and revised its operating procedures as described below. Dingelstedt consulted with fire department officers and the Township Committee’s Public Safety Committee on the design of these revisions.

• The South Orange Rescue Squad will be the primary back-up ambulance to Maplewood during the evening and weekend hours when they have a crew available.
• MONOC will be the primary back-up ambulance to Maplewood during the hours that the SORS is not in service.
• When SORS and MONOC are both not available, secondary mutual aid will be provided to Maplewood by the following agencies in the order shown: University Hospital EMS; Union Township EMS; and Union County EMS.
• Anytime a mutual aid ambulance is dispatched to Maplewood, REMCS will notify the Maplewood Fire Department’s on-duty platoon commander of the nature of the call in order to maintain situational awareness. REMCS is the Regional Emergency Medical Communications System of Metropolitan New Jersey, which is housed at University Hospital.
• On life-threatening emergencies, the Maplewood Fire Department will continue to respond with an engine or ladder when the department’s ambulance is out on a call.

The Department’s standard operating procedure flowcharts were clarified to reflect types of emergencies for first-responder responses by an engine or ladder company and the language was updated to reflect current agencies involved.

  Emergency Response, Maplewood Fire Department, Maplewood Township Committee, MONOC, REMCS, South Orange Rescue Squad, University Hospital