Some AU students and Public Safety officers are at odds over Public Safety's response time to a medical emergency in Mary Graydon Center this past week. Some students estimated that it took officers 10 to 15 minutes to respond to an AU student who was having a seizure in MGC, while Public Safety claims it took about four minutes. Public Safety Chief Michael McNair said it is common for students to overestimate time during an emergency and this may very well be true. Nevertheless the response has exposed some underlying flaws in AU's emergency response protocol.
During an emergency, students are encouraged to call Public Safety first, rather than 911. Then Public Safety will dispatch an officer to verify the call's claim. After the officer has done so, they will then call emergency personnel and request assistance if the situation requires any. Finally, Public Safety will escort whatever emergency response vehicle is dispatched onto campus and to the emergency.
This bureaucratic process adds unnecessary amounts of time to emergency responses and puts the affected person at unnecessary risk. A student who is having a seizure and coughing up blood needs to be dealt with by professional medical personnel as soon as possible. The chain of command needs to be streamlined and become more direct.
Almost as importantly, Public Safety officers need to have more medical training than they are currently required to have. Officers only need to have CPR certification, doing little to prepare officers for the reality of day-to-day on-campus medical emergencies. All Public Safety officers need to be prepared to handle situations like this one.
There will be more medical emergencies on campus emergencies where a person's life will depend on the rapid response of competent medical personnel. Last week, it was a seizure; next week it could be a heart attack. It would be a terrible for someone to die while Public Safety worked through its convoluted chain of command. We are college students - we are smart enough to know whether or not someone needs medical attention. If we call Public Safety and say someone needs serious medical attention, why should they wait the extra four minutes to actually call the people we need?
