[1390] in UA Exec
RE: Ambulance Confidentiality
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jessica H Lowell)
Tue Sep 25 16:40:28 2012
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 16:40:24 -0400
From: Jessica H Lowell <jessiehl@MIT.EDU>
To: Michael E Plasmeier <theplaz@mit.edu>
Cc: Katy I Gero <kgero@mit.edu>, "ua-exec@mit.edu" <ua-exec@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <388D92FC03663C4083F773B8B23B26E711072FE2@OC11EXPO30.exchange.mit.edu>
Wow, this is the first time in several years I've contributed to a UA
discussion
(I guess ua-discuss was cced on this?).
When I was in the UA I poked a little bit at the fact that you have to go
through campus police to get EMTs. That went absolutely nowhere; the idea of
*actual* confidential medical help was a non-starter. I've since learned,
doing volunteer medical work, that "If you summon emergency medical help you
might also get cops" is also a significant barrier to people getting medical
help in the "real world".
I did not know about the involvement of the Dean on Call, etc (has that always
been the case or is that relatively new?). IMO that is pretty terrible and if
the UA successfully picked it up that would be good for students. A bit of
crufty anecdata - I brought this issue up on my zephyr class after seeing this
thread, and every single person who responded was horrified at the idea
that so
many people could be in the loop on this, and most said that if they'd known
that as undergrads it would have affected their willingness to call 100 in an
emergency situation.
- Jessie
UA Senator 2004-2005, 2006-2007
UAVP 2005-2006
Quoting Michael E Plasmeier <theplaz@MIT.EDU>:
> Don't leave many details on the phone call...
>
> From: katystreet@gmail.com [mailto:katystreet@gmail.com] On Behalf Of
> Katy Gero
> Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 9:52 PM
> To: ua-exec@mit.edu
> Subject: Ambulance Confidentiality
>
> Hello everyone that is on this mailing list,
>
> Let me know if this is not the correct mailing list to use for this
> issue. I recently learned that when you call campus police at 100 all
> details from that call are reported to the Dean on Call, who is not
> in any way bound by confidentiality. (The list of people a Dean on
> Call might tell is quite large, and includes, I think, other Deans on
> Call, S^3, Dean Humphrey's, Barbara Baker...) So while the EMTs are
> completely confidential, you can only call the EMTs through campus
> police. This is pretty upsetting to me, since I have generally been
> told that calling an ambulance is confidential and is something I
> tell others to encourage them to call 100 in an emergency situation.
>
> I would be pretty upset if S^3 based their decision of what to do
> with me because of on an incident I was involved with when the EMTs
> were called.
>
> I also recently learned that the Good Samaritan policy only applies
> to alcohol related incidents. I have similar feelings towards this.
>
> I'm not sure if this is an issue the UA wants to pick up, but I would
> be in support of looking into these policies.
>
> Katy Gero
> Senior Haus President and Former UA Senate Member
>
>
