emergency response

Environment

Report takes aim at EPA, WFU, and local officials over Weaver fire response

4:09pm August 05, 2022

by Keri Brown

A recent study claims local officials and environmental agencies downplayed hazardous air conditions during the Winston Weaver fertilizer plant fire — and more should have been done to alert the public.

Therapist Kiki Radermacher was one of the first members of a mobile crisis response unit in Missoula, Mont., which started responding to emergency mental health calls last year. That pilot project becomes permanent in July and is one of six such teams in

In Montana, Crisis Support Teams Offer Alternatives To Policing Mental Health

5:00am June 10, 2021

by Katheryn Houghton

Montana now has six mobile crisis response teams — up from one in 2019 — with more in the works. Each team has a different makeup, but all use mental health support to diffuse tricky situations.

Health & Safety

Winston-Salem Considers Changes To Emergency Mental Health Response

12:39pm February 19, 2021

by Keri Brown

The city of Winston-Salem is exploring possible changes to how police respond to mental health-related 911 calls.

After a coronavirus test came back positive on a patient who had been treated at NorthBay VacaValley Hospital in Vacaville, Calif., in February, about 100 NorthBay workers were sent into self-quarantine for 14 days.

Scarcity Of Health Workers A New Concern As Self-Quarantining Spreads With Virus

12:45pm March 09, 2020

by Jenny Gold

Should "potential exposure" by a health worker to someone with coronavirus be enough to send that worker home for two weeks of self-quarantine? Health systems have begun debating relative risks.

Evacuees fill up cots at a shelter set up inside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas.

Health Issues Stack Up In Houston As Harvey Evacuees Seek Shelter

12:50am August 30, 2017

With thousands of people displaced, health workers are trying to address the immediate medical needs of evacuees as well as mental health issues made worse by the disaster.

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People in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, make their way through a fumigation fog that's meant to kill the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus.

White House Says It Will Cut Ebola Funding To Address Zika

4:22pm April 06, 2016

by Rae Ellen Bichell

The Obama administration requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds to prepare for Zika, but Congress has yet to respond. Now the White House plans to divert funding intended for Ebola.

East Cleveland medic Anthony Savoy says his city's ambulances are diverted frequently to a hospital further away, and that can add one or two minutes to response times.

Cleveland Pressures Hospitals To Keep ERs Open To All Ambulances

7:54am January 02, 2016

by Sarah Jane Tribble

When you call an ambulance, you expect to go to the nearest hospital. But patients are often diverted to more distant emergency rooms. Cleveland wants hospitals to stop the practice.

After a tornado leveled Moore, Okla., last year, firefighter Shonn Neidel (left) developed an app that helps first responders locate storm shelters under the wreckage.

Environment

Storm Shelter App Helps Pinpoint People Amid Tornado's Rubble

10:08pm August 23, 2015

by Rachel Hubbard

After a tornado hits, emergency crews looking for survivors in storm shelters face a problem: Streets and landmarks are suddenly unrecognizable. One Moore, Okla., firefighter developed an app to help.

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World News

Botched Police Response May Have Kept Car Accident Victims Waiting Days

7:53pm July 09, 2015

by Lucy Perkins

A 28-year-old man was dead and a 25-year-old woman was seriously injured when they were found by police in a car on the side of the road in Scotland.

Houston firefighters learn to use a video chat program that will let them consult with an emergency medicine doctor while responding to 911 calls.

Doctors Make House Calls On Tablets Carried By Houston Firefighters

6:31pm April 09, 2015

by Carrie Feibel

Most calls to the Houston Fire Department are for health problems, not fires. All those medical calls strain the 911 system and make a career in firefighting seem more like a career in health care.

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