Sydney Denekamp | Staff Intern
Emergency service workers have been adapting to a new normal to ensure worker and patient safety amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since spring of this year, emergency medical technicians (commonly known as EMTs) have had to adapt to a host of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety of their communities.
“You have to be worried about the unknown” said Heather Stangland, an emergency medical services supervisor at Med-Star Ambulance Services.
Stangland said everyone at Med-Star has been taking more precautions to protect both staff and patients from the virus. Staff at Med-Star have daily temperature checks and are being provided with masks and gloves for every emergency situation they enter. Staff are limiting contact with others as much as possible. Ambulances are thoroughly cleaned between each transfer.
All patients are now masked upon the EMT’s arrival at emergency scenes to ensure the EMT’s safety as well as the safety of hospital workers after transfer. If a patient is COVID-19 positive, Med-Star is asking that they be picked up and transferred to an ambulance outside to limit staff exposure to the virus if possible.
Along with normal rescue procedures, Med-Star has signed up to carry out COVID-19 case transfers for the state of South Dakota. For known COVID-19-positive cases like these transfers, EMTs wear protective gowns, gloves and masks. EMTs also use a specialized ambulance which contains only the bare necessities needed to care for the COVID-19-positive patient as well as a sectioned-off space for the ambulance driver.
So far, the precautionary measures Med-Star has been taking seem to be working. No emergency responder at Med-Star has tested positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, Sept. 7.
“I guess this is my new normal … but if you had asked me a couple months ago, I would’ve said ‘yeah, this is scary’,” said Allison Fairbanks, an EMT for Med-Star Ambulance Services.
Fairbanks said one of the hardest changes she has had to make since the pandemic began is limiting herself from seeing her family members to avoid potentially infecting them with COVID-19. She also said it was difficult for her to consistently protect those in her household from infection, but that the precautions she takes to ensure her family’s safety are worth it.
Fairbanks expressed concern about the upcoming flu season. She worries common cold or flu symptoms will be mistaken as COVID-19 symptoms and cause staff members to have to quarantine as a precaution.
As for the future of emergency responders during this uncertain time, no one can predict how things will change in the coming months. Fairbanks said that while COVID-19 has made her job harder, “People still need an ambulance. You just have to suck it up and do it.”