Utilizing a Scramble Crew Approach to Achieve 24-Hour Coverage

August 10, 2018

Poster Presentation Abstract

Introduction: Muhlenberg College is a small liberal arts school with a campus population of approximately 3,000. Muhlenberg College EMS (MCEMS) is a quick response service, with about 30 student volunteers and an approximate call volume of 200 emergency response calls per academic year. For 10 years, MCEMS was in service 24 hours a day; however, in 2009, MCEMS began only responding to calls from 5 p.m. until 8 a.m. during the week and 24 hours throughout the weekend, leaving the daytime unaddressed Monday through Friday. In 2016, MCEMS reinstituted daytime response, incorporating Active 911, a digital messaging system, and an all-call, scramble crew model. To our knowledge, there are no reports in the literature of collegiate-based EMS agencies incorporating this approach. Program Development & Implementation: In daytime response during the week, MCEMS is dispatched by Muhlenberg’s Department of Campus Safety through Active 911 – all members receive a notification and can indicate their availability to respond to the scene. Additionally, MCEMS crew chiefs unable to respond can indicate their availability to provide remote assistance over the phone. Program Evaluation: Since the new response plan began in March of 2016, MCEMS has responded to 47 calls that may have otherwise been ignored, at a response time shorter than that of normal duty crew responses. As part of the initiative, MCEMS has strengthened its relationship with Campus Safety through training dispatchers and adding medical supplies in all of their vehicles. Discussion/Conclusions: Combining the scramble-crew approach with regular duty crews has both provided MCEMS’ members with flexibility and, more importantly, reassured the Muhlenberg community that emergency medical services are always available on campus. Recurring training of MCEMS members and Campus Safety employees will be crucial to ensuring the model’s long-term viability. MCEMS believes that this model can be beneficial to collegiate EMS agencies who wish to provide or improve daytime coverage.