Knox County first responders activated the Emergency Operations Center to deal with a sudden shortage of ambulances on Tuesday.

Knox Co. deactivates Emergency Ops Center after dealing with sudden shortage of ambulances

bizgrrl's picture

We saw this yesterday. What

We saw this yesterday. What does it mean?
Shortage of AMR ambulance/EMT resources?
A plethora of people needing emergency services?

I tried to find something out about the Knoxville/Knox County Emergency Operations Center. No luck.

What exactly happened?

AMRs statement,

"Knox County experienced a high volume of 911 calls this afternoon that exceeded the capacity of available resources. The EOC was partially activated as is protocol, and mutual aid was requested from other EMS providers in the region to assist with the sudden increase in demand. We have received assistance from several neighboring counties and have implemented local policies, including surging at local EDs to rapidly offload patients as appropriate, and placing all credentialed personnel on ambulances. We would like to thank all agencies for their assistance and prompt action to ensure the community was well protected during this time."

"As soon as the current circumstances resolve, we will begin conversations with AMR on how this can be avoided in the future," Donila said."

Should they report some stats on why this happened?
How many calls? What is the norm?
Types of calls? Illness? Drugs? Accidents?
Not enough room, resources at local hospitals?
Long patient wait time with ambulance/EMTs?
What ?

fischbobber's picture

What happened.

We reached capacity for our system. Sometimes I forget that not everyone used to watch the Board of Health meetings , where Dr. Shamiyeh warned us repeatedly about our staffing issues. Simply put, what happened is exactly what we knew would happen if we failed to mitigate covid. Hospitalizations from covid hit 49 last week and should have surpassed fifty this week unless something unusual changed the current path of covid. There is no room at thye inn. You have to have someplace to take the patients for treatment for an ambulance to function. We don't have that.

What we have is an unimpeded pandemic that is still being artificially accelerated in Knox County. Bio-warfare is an ugly thing and our County has been attacked by our own county government with a biological agent that they've convinced their followers is a hoax. It is not a hoax. Our medical infrastructure collapse will get worse. Get vaccinated. Save yourself.

jbr's picture

AMR reassigns and relocates ambulances after sudden shortage

"There's more calls than there are resources available at times," Spencer said. "We don't need more ambulances — we need more staff in the ambulances than we have."

AMR reassigns and relocates ambulances after sudden shortage on Tuesday, will give cots to some patients taken to hospitals

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

TN Progressive

TN Politics

Knox TN Today

Local TV News

News Sentinel

    State News

    Wire Reports

    Lost Medicaid Funding

    To date, the failure to expand Medicaid/TennCare has cost the State of Tennessee ? in lost federal funding. (Source)

    Search and Archives