What happens if: three questions everyone answers

If somebody goes down in the next hour, we have about four minutes of useful time. Let's spend two now so we do not waste them then.

The points

• Everyone should answer three questions without thinking: where do we meet, who calls it in, and what is the address of this site.
• Put the site address in your phone. Under stress nobody remembers cross streets, and dispatch needs a number and a street.
• Know where the first aid kit, the eyewash and the nearest AED are before the day you need them.
• One person calls 911 and stays on the line. Everyone else keeps the route clear so the ambulance is not looking for the gate.
• After any injury the scene stays as it is until someone has looked at it. That is how the next one gets prevented.

Why it goes wrong

What goes wrong in an emergency is almost never the medical part. It is the address. Crews on a new site know it by the cross street or by the builder's lot number, and dispatch needs a house number and a street name. The minutes lost while four people argue about which road it is are the minutes that mattered.

The second failure is everyone calling and nobody calling. When it is not assigned, three people dial and each assumes the others have it covered, or nobody does. One person calls and stays on the line, because dispatch asks follow-up questions and hanging up early loses the answers.

The third is the gate. An ambulance that cannot find the entrance, or gets to a locked gate with no one at it, is still not with the injured person. Somebody clearing that route is doing real work, not standing around.

Leaving the scene alone afterward is the part people resist, because the instinct is to tidy up. But the position of the ladder, the setting on the machine, the missing guard - that is the only evidence of why it happened, and once it is cleaned up the same thing happens to somebody else.

Questions for the crew

1. What is the street address of this site? Say it out loud.
2. Who is calling 911 today if it happens?
3. Where is the first aid kit, and where is the nearest AED?

To close

Put the site address in your phone before you pick up a tool today. Everybody, right now.