Selectmen, Safety Officials Review EMT Response Time to December Incident

A little more than a month after 9-1-1 call was made to the for an athletic injury at , Westwood Fire Chief William Scoble presented a detailed report of the department's response time to the Westwood Board of Selectmen Monday night.

The report came after Selectmen Chair Pat Ahearn requested a review after hearing concern regarding a delayed response of EMT crews to the scene on Sunday, Dec. 4. Crews were responding to the reported injury sustained by a young female basketball player in the high school gym.

"When this situation came to my attention, I spoke to both [Police Chief William] Chase and Chief Scoble," Ahearn said Monday night. "I asked them to review their responsibilities and get together and report to us."

Both Scoble and Chase were present Monday night to discuss a report of the events with detailed times, which they compiled.

According to the dispatch report, the actual time frame from when the fire department first received the call (around 11:51 a.m.) and when crews left Westwood High School to transport the victim to Children's Hospital in Boston (around 12:13 p.m.) was about 22 minutes in total, Scoble said Monday.

The initial call was transferred to the by Massachusetts State Police, Scoble said, and that the call originated from someone dialing 9-1-1 from the scene on a cell phone. 

Ahearn said he reviewed a copy of of the cell phone records with the original caller of the Dec. 4 incident who called 9-1-1 from the scene, and that they were comparable to the dispatch logs from that date, with no more than a minute in difference.

The confusion in how long it took EMTs to respond, he added, may have come from the time displays on the caller's cell phone, which may not have been aligned precicely with the time system of the fire and police departments. But, he clarified, the response time was similar from both perspectives.

"[The caller's] only suggestion was that if you get a call from the gym in the future, try and go to the gym door because that's wide open all the time, rather than the side door," Ahearn said.

The call was then transferred to the Westwood Fire Department at 11:51 a.m., according to reports. By 11:52, an ambulance was on the road headed for the high school, at which it arrived by 11:54.

"(Crews) headed to the entrance by the Westwood Recreation Department," Scoble said. "That's a normal access spot for us."

While the responding Emergency Medical Technicians were aware that some doors at the school may have been locked, as it was a Sunday, Scoble said crews spotted individuals entering the building from that entrance as they pulled into the parking lot, thus indicating to them that they were headed in the right direction.

After loading up on equipment, crews then ran into a small speed bump, as the door they'd tried to access at the end of the hallway had been locked.

EMTs and fire officials then tried to bang on the doors to the gym, but were not able to gain the attention of anyone on the other side. They then moved to another nearby door, at which time the fire department's captain in charge at the time arrived, and were able to gain entrance to the gym after a parent opened the door and got their attention to let them in.

It was 11:59 by the time crews reached the victim, eight minutes after receiving the original call, according to reports.

While the response time was not abnormal, the ideal response time would have been closer to five minutes, Scoble said Monday night.

However, he added, measures are being taken to ensure that crews do not run into the issue of being prohibited by locked doors moving forward.

One potential solution, he said, would be to better utilize a door number system that is in place at the high school, as well as other larger facilities in town.

"One thing we have done at Westwood Lodge is the doors are numbered," Scoble said. "Looking back at this incident, this is something we're going to try with this building."

That process would entail having school staff and officials become aware of how doors are numbered to be able to report emergency situations with a clear indication of an incident's location.

Selectmen Third Member Phil Shapiro suggested that safety officials consider that other schools in town should be treated with the same regard moving forward.

"I just would reiterate that the middle school and the other schools have the potential to present the same types of problems," Shapiro said.

Meanwhile, Selectmen Clerk Nancy Hyde recalled being the 9-1-1 caller at a similar incident at the high school a number of years back.

"I remember following up with [Chief Scoble] because I was concerned that it felt like forever," Hyde said. "It wasn't my child, it wasn't our team, but everyone was very concerned. I think there's an instinctive process that takes place. You actually did look into that and reassured me that the time was appropriate."

Hyde added that regardless of a misunderstood response time, police and fire crews have remained consistently vigilant in town with how they deal with public safety.

"We are very fortunate," she said. "While we want to improve the system, we have a great system in place. And I think this has been very informative. It shows how carefully-managed this process is."

Scoble's report of the incident is available for reading, Ahearn added, and that the board considered the matter closed.