KCEMS Communications plan – 2014
Effective January 6th 2014, at 12AM, the process for communicating from
ambulances to hospitals will be changing.
Kent County MedCom, historically answering and directing radio and phone calls for all
EMS to hospital communications, will be answering only radio and phone calls going to
Spectrum Hospitals in Kent County (Blodgett [BMMC], Butterworth [BWH] and Helen
DeVos Children’s hospitals [HDVCH]).
Spectrum MedCom will not be answering or directing radio or phone calls going to Metro
Health (Metro) Hospital, Mercy Health Saint Mary’s – Main Campus (MHSM) or Mercy
Health Saint Mary’s Southwest Campus (MHSM-SW).
To reach a hospital by radio, EMS will call on the UHF med channel assigned to that
particular hospital (see list below). No EMS agency should need to reprogram radios as
the channels themselves are remaining the same. However, MED 9, which has historically
been used to contact MedCom, will be reassigned to SMHC-SW.
Licensed to:
KCEMS System
KCEMS System
KCEMS System
KCEMS System
KCEMS System
KCEMS System
KCEMS System
Med
Channel
1
2
4
5
6
8
9
Frequency
PL
463.000
463.025
463.075
463.100
463.125
468.175
462.950
192.8
192.8
192.8
192.8
173.8
192.8
192.8
Hospital
Blodgett
Butterworth and Helen DeVos
Metro
MHSM Main Campus
South Disaster (s/o 10 mile)
North Disaster (n/o 10 mile)
MHSM SW
Recording
Call recording will take place on all radio channels and on the designated phone lines (see
below). State medcom rules require that all communications between EMS and hospitals
be recorded and that each transport must have some method of communication from EMS
to the hospitals. These recordings are under the Medical Control participation of each
hospital and are Protected Standards Review Organization (PSRO) recordings. These
recordings are required to be maintained for at least 90 days. Thus, only the recorded
phone and radio methods of communication meet the statutory requirements.
Phone numbers
EMS may use the phone to call the emergency department’s recorded lines but must do
so on the following numbers:
Blodgett, Butterworth and Helen DeVos Children’s:
(616) 391-5319
Metro Health Hospital:
(616) 252-6900
Mercy Health Saint Mary’s – Main Campus:
(616) 685-3077
Mercy Health Saint Mary’s – Southwest Campus:
Radio ONLY
Dead on Scenes/Termination of Resuscitation
For these situations, just as in the past, the EMS crews may (if required to provide a radio
report) call the hospital ED which the patient would have been transported to, or the
closest hospital if a drug bag needs to be replaced. Times of death should be obtained
from that unit’s EMS agency dispatch (call your own dispatch for a time).
MedCom Numbers
There will no longer be MedCom numbers so use the agency call/incident/tag number.
(See Patient Numbers in EMTrack below if using EMTrack)
EMTrack use
Kent County-based ambulance agencies will be using EMTrack for hospital notification of
all transported patients. EMTrack is a local computer application. One logs-in at the start of
the shift and when a patient is transported the demographics are entered into the program
and submitted to the destination hospital.
**Tip: You can toggle between full screen mode and the reduced window size by pushing the F2 button.
**Tip 2: In the bottom left corner of the EMTrack window an hourglass will appear when a call is submitted,
this changes to a green checkmark when the call goes through.
For out-of-county units who do not use EMTrack, if EMS calls a Spectrum hospital, their
call center will input the necessary data. For MHSM, MHSM-SW and Metro, the out of
county data will not be collected.
Outlying agencies wishing to participate in EMTrack for hospital notifications may contact
KCEMS for assistance in getting set up.
Each ED will have a slightly different process for checking patients in at the hospital using
EMTrack. In most cases, the EMS providers will check the patient in when they arrive.
Patient numbers in EMTrack:
EMTrack was originally designed to be used with triage tags or wristbands. We opted not
to go with the wristbands largely due to cost and convenience. In place of a scanned tag
number we will be using the first letter of the agency name, the unit number and then the
number which the agency provides to the crew for that call; be it an incident, call or tag
number. The idea is to create a unique number which will never duplicate.
When to call
For Kent County-based agencies, EMTrack notifications are required for all patients. Outof -county units should call the hospital direct on radio or phone as above for all patients
unless they too are participating on EMTrack.
In-county units and included out-of-county units must provide radio reports or phone calls
for all echo and delta level patients and at any time that they need medication or
procedural approvals.
 Radio or phone reports must be made on ALL STROKE and STEMI patients.
 Direct admits must have a radio report made when going to Spectrum hospitals
 Pediatric transfers coming into HDVCH must have a radio report.
 If an uncommon situation presents, such as a family all going to the same
destination despite the age guidelines, call.
 All patients who need either isolation or decontamination should also be called
through to allow the hospital time to prepare.
 When in doubt, call.
 If there is a high probability, based on the destination matrix, that the hospital will
divert the patient, call.
New Prioritization Scheme*****
Under EMTrack and when calling patient information through to the hospitals, we will be
utilizing a new prioritization scheme which is intended to communicate the severity of the
patient to the hospital in a way that is more consistent with their internal triage.
Current Designation
New Designation
Meaning
Example*
Priority 1
Echo (Red)
Priority 2 (High)
Delta (Yellow)
Priority 2 (Low)
Charlie (Yellow)
High acuity – needs
resources immediately
Significantly ill or
injured
Protocol priority 2’s
Priority 3
Bravo (Green)
Minor (Cant’s go to
triage)
Priority 3
Alpha (Green)
Minor (CAN go to triage)
Dead
Dead (Black)
Dead
Post arrest, intubated,
unstable VS
STEMI, Stroke, stable
VS
Arm fracture with IV and
pain meds
Knee pain without
deformity, stable VS in
pajamas
Toothache, stable and
appropriately clothed
Dead
* These Examples are not all inclusive and are intended to demonstrate concepts, not specifics. The
overarching concept is that the scale defines how severely ill or injured the patient actually is.
***** The use of the new designations is currently for EMTrack only and does not
apply to verbal communications with the hospitals. The transition to include this
five level prioritization in verbal communication transition will take place, along with
education, after EMTrack is launched. This will allow everyone to work through any
EMTrack and radio system deployment issues.
If hospitals need to reach an EMS unit
Hospitals may talk directly with EMS units when they call in radio reports or phone calls.
If only an EMTrack notification is provided, there is no mechanism within the program yet
to allow for 2-way communication. So, if there is a need to talk with the unit, the ED may
simply phone the ambulance service to request a phone or radio call from the EMS unit.
AMR
Life
Rockford
(616) 459-8197
(616) 458-5433
(616) 866-2293
Alerts through EMResource
Hospitals and EMS dispatch centers utilize EMResource, a web-based application, to
provide and receive notifications of events of significance. Hospital openings and closings
are provided as notifications through this system as are MCI and HAZMAT alerts. The
ambulance service providers and the 9-1-1 answering points have the ability to input event
notifications.
The meanings of these notifications will be explained in greater detail in other reference
documents.
 Openings and Closings are defined in the EMResource Utilization Policy. These
are pretty self-explanatory.
 HAZMAT alerts are intended to convey that a POTENTIAL HAZMAT has been
reported. The first alert is provided as a heads up to notify the entire system that
something may be happening. More information is expected to follow.
 MCI Alerts are provided for awareness that an event of significance has occurred.
This too is intended to prompt awareness without changing daily operations unless
it contains more specific information. Hospitals should provide their ability to accept
Red/Yellow and Green Patients.
We are in the process of restructuring the Significant Event/MCI/Disaster Plan. Once
completed, it will provide a more clearly defined structure for these events.
We are also considering using the EMResource notification system for more Alert types,
including Amber Alerts, etc.
MCI Communications
With Kent County MedCom no longer acting in their historic capacity, if a MCI or significant
event occurs, the EMS agency with primary responsibility for management of the event will
function as Disaster Communications or DISCOM. They will be taking over the
responsibilities previously assigned to MedCom. So, MCI declarations must be made to
your dispatch, they will assign radio channels as needed, do radio checks and create
EMResource events. Units assigned to the MCI will be under the control of DISCOM until
released.
With the use of EMTrack, during MCI operations, the transporting units will use EMTrack
to provide patient notifications to their assigned destination under “daily tracking”. Any outof-county units participating in MCI operations will provide patient information to Spectrum
Communications if transporting to any Kent County Spectrum facility. If transporting to
MHSM, MHSM-SW or Metro, they must contact DISCOM to enter the EMTrack patient.
The Transportation Supervisor may, at their discretion, opt to enter patients at transport
into EMTrack for hospital notifications. Patient reports may be called through to the
destination hospitals by the Transport Supervisor on their respective channels, or they opt
to simply allow the EMS units to call through directly on the respective hospital channels
just as they normally would. More information will be provided on this in the coming weeks.
Please contact KCEMS if you have questions or need clarification of any of the above.