Making a 911 call is something that many will do some time in their life. Statistically, fifteen million plus people in the United States make a distress calls each year. Unfortunately many of these calls are for non-emergent situations. Some types of 911 abuse are intentional misuse of the number, ignorance of the meaning of 'emergency' and sad, lonely people who are only reaching out for some attention in their life.
Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics are required to respond to all distress call, regardless of whether they are 'true emergencies' or false alarms. While responding to a false distress call, they aren't free to handle true emergencies. This has been known to have possibly deadly consequences.
There are those who will contact an emergency dispatcher to try and get into an Emergency Room at a hospital faster. Some believe that showing up to the ER in an ambulance will cause them to jump to the front of the line of patients waiting to be seen by a physician. However, this is untrue. Emergency Rooms are required to assist the most serious cases first; just arriving in an ambulance does not necessarily mean that the patient's prognosis is serious.
Many people are ignorant of the concept of a true emergency and will call for some rather bizarre reasons. There have been many calls made reporting runaway pets or stolen cars. The regular, non-emergency police department telephone number will be able to handle this type of incident report without tying up the vital resources of emergency dispatchers.
Perhaps the most sad aspect of this phenomenon are the lonely shut-ins who are neglected by family and friends. Often they will call 911 just to hear a sympathetic voice. Many of these mostly elderly people call their local emergency line so often they are referred to by dispatchers and EMTs as 'frequent fliers'.
These types of callers will often get a visit from a law enforcement officer, who will speak with them of the necessity of using 911 for emergent situations only. They will usually call social services to help find a better form of company for these seniors, which will alleviate their 911 abuse. This turns out to be a win-win situation for everyone.
Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics are required to respond to all distress call, regardless of whether they are 'true emergencies' or false alarms. While responding to a false distress call, they aren't free to handle true emergencies. This has been known to have possibly deadly consequences.
There are those who will contact an emergency dispatcher to try and get into an Emergency Room at a hospital faster. Some believe that showing up to the ER in an ambulance will cause them to jump to the front of the line of patients waiting to be seen by a physician. However, this is untrue. Emergency Rooms are required to assist the most serious cases first; just arriving in an ambulance does not necessarily mean that the patient's prognosis is serious.
Many people are ignorant of the concept of a true emergency and will call for some rather bizarre reasons. There have been many calls made reporting runaway pets or stolen cars. The regular, non-emergency police department telephone number will be able to handle this type of incident report without tying up the vital resources of emergency dispatchers.
Perhaps the most sad aspect of this phenomenon are the lonely shut-ins who are neglected by family and friends. Often they will call 911 just to hear a sympathetic voice. Many of these mostly elderly people call their local emergency line so often they are referred to by dispatchers and EMTs as 'frequent fliers'.
These types of callers will often get a visit from a law enforcement officer, who will speak with them of the necessity of using 911 for emergent situations only. They will usually call social services to help find a better form of company for these seniors, which will alleviate their 911 abuse. This turns out to be a win-win situation for everyone.
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