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NTSB: Philadelphia Police Transporting Patients From Amtrak Crash Did No Harm
May 17--The Philadelphia Police Department's practice of "scoop-and-run" at last year's Amtrak crash -- transporting injured victims to hospitals instead of waiting for ambulances -- meant that the injured were unevenly distributed at area hospitals in the hours after the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
But no "significant negative medical outcomes" occurred as a result, the board concluded, and the police's rush to get victims to the hospital meant that the first injured victim was already at the hospital and receiving care by the time a triage operation had set up at the crash.
The board recommended that the city develop a plan to systematically work scoop-and-run into its emergency response plan, including a method for better spreading patients among area hospitals.
The NTSB said the city's emergency responders should communicate better during mass-casualty events. Because police and fire radio communications are largely separate in Philadelphia, the board said, the city should work to integrate the police department into its emergency transportation plans.
The city decided to update its emergency response plan after a previous NTSB report, and will now require those transporting victims to hospitals to check in with a transportation coordinator first.
"Scoop-and-run is a great practice and something that we want to continue to use," said Samantha Phillips, the head of Philadelphia's Office of Emergency Management. "We want to better integrate it on a larger scale."
She said emergency responders transporting patients from a scene should be "checking in, making sure that we're transporting severely injured patients in a vehicle that makes sense."
Just 24 of the 186 passengers taken to hospitals after the Amtrak crash made it there by ambulance. The rest were transported via police car and SEPTA bus, in keeping with Philadelphia police's practice of "scoop-and-run," which normally applies to shooting and stabbing victims.
Firefighters later complained to the NTSB that police cars had blocked access to the crash site and that police had refused their requests to triage patients on the scene.
The NTSB called the transportation of the injured from the Amtrak scene "nontraditional" and "not optimal." But federal officials acknowledged that taking patients to the hospital in police cars "may get patients to care quickly and may not cause harm."
Still, they said, "an injured person transported in a vehicle other than an ambulance could potentially suffer additional injury or medical complications as a result."
Penn Presbyterian Hospital and Temple University Hospital both have trauma centers equipped to deal with the seriousness of injuries suffered in the crash, but Penn Presbyterian received only two patients, Temple dealt with "dozens," investigators said.
That wasn't a problem for Temple -- "They're a huge trauma facility," Phillips said. But hospitals have said in meetings with OEM officials that they'd like better coordination with the city during large-scale disasters.
Phillips said the city is working to make sure police, firefighters and area hospitals work together better should another mass-casualty event occur.
A transportation coordinator ideally would direct responders to different hospitals based on bed availability and emergency-room capacity, she said.
Police Commissioner Richard Ross said there was not a "rift" between police officers and firefighters the night of the crash.
"I'm very proud of the actions of the men and women in the police department on that night," he said.
He said the department agrees with the plan to integrate the long-standing "scoop-and-run" policy with the city's mass casualty planning.
Police already wait for ambulances to arrive after car crashes, where a victim's injuries might be similar to the trauma injuries suffered in a train crash, Ross said.
At the scene of the Amtrak crash, his officers heard "people screaming for help . . . and that's why they acted," he said.
"I'm thankful we have that policy, and I'm not suggesting it was the best practice on that night, but I'm glad they did it," Ross said. "People got to that hospital quickly. We really just need to acknowledge that we can always improve upon any of our actions."
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