EMS Duty Officer

What is the EMS Duty Officer Program?

The County of San Diego Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Duty Officer is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to respond to mutual aid requests, coordinate disaster medical operations, and assist hospitals and providers in managing the EMS system.

 

When should the County EMS Duty Officer be contacted?

Duty Officer requests are divided into Notifications, Urgent Alerts, and Regional Emergencies.

System participants are expected to notify the EMS Duty Officer when an incident, event, or exercise has the potential to impact the EMS Delivery System. The EMS Delivery System includes EMS and Emergency Departments equally. When in doubt, notify the EMS Duty Officer.

Notifications (Level 3) include:

  • Hospital bed counts
  • Failures or significant trouble with EMS communication or data systems
  • Significant incidents where media interest may extend to the EMS Delivery System (e.g., expanded incidents, multiple fatalities, disruption of the EMS Delivery System)
  • Large planned or no-notice mass gatherings to which EMS resources could potentially be assigned (e.g., peaceful demonstrations, civil unrest)
  • Unusual but urgent events that require County EMS notification (e.g., non-injury vehicle accidents where an ambulance is involved and disabled)

Urgent Alerts (Level 2) include:

  • Any incident resulting in a temporary or prolonged reduction in first responder medical response coverage
  • Death or serious line-of-duty injury of EMS system personnel
  • Ambulance provider (ALS, BLS, or CCT) declaring service disruption or inability to provide 24/7 service
  • Anticipated prolonged ambulance diversion as defined in County EMS Policy S-010
  • Prehospital events with the potential to impact the larger EMS Delivery System (e.g., prison riot, multi-patient collisions with many patients requiring transport)
  • Incidents, events, or other disruptions that need to be communicated to the larger EMS Delivery System (e.g., law enforcement closures or impact, HazMat incidents affecting EMS routing)
  • Hospitals declaring Internal Disaster or other critical issues
  • Calls with requests or notifications from another County (including XSD MHOAC requests/notifications)

Regional Emergencies (Level 1) include:

  • Immediate safety alerts, such as a violent individual in the emergency department or hospital parking lot requiring incoming ambulance traffic to be urgently rerouted
  • Annex D/Mass Casualty Incident alert or activation
  • Annex D/Mass Casualty, where 3 or more patients will be transported out of the county
  • Request for significant additional resources from another zone or county
  • BioWatch or other environmental sampling results/alerts
  • Surge transportation, actual or planned need (e.g., medical facility evacuation requiring the equivalent of more than one Ambulance Strike Team)
  • Prolonged (> 1 hour) “Level Zero” status in an EMS Operational Area
  • Activation of the County Emergency Operations Center (EOC)

When in doubt, notify the Duty Officer.

Be prepared to provide the EMS Duty Officer dispatch center with:

  • information on the urgency of the request as per the information above
  • whether a callback is needed and the time frame
  • what your specific request is (or notification only)
  • location of the incident (if applicable)
  • your contact info, agency, and title/role

 

How can I contact the EMS Duty Officer?

The San Diego County Interagency Command Center (SDICC) processes all Duty Officer notifications.

The EMS Duty Officer's phone number is: 619-588-0397 (619-219-8100 alternate)

(Fire Agencies: If the Duty Officer notification is related to an incident that has not been closed in CAD, the Duty Officer can be alerted through the Comm Center CAD to CAD link).

 

Do I need to call the Duty Officer for routine notifications?

San Diego County EMS has established an email address to advise EMS leadership of important but not necessarily emergent information. EMSnotifications@sdcounty.ca.gov.  Urgent and emergent messages should be directed to the EMS Duty Officer.

County EMS notifications include: 

  • Fire personnel leaving the County for fireline paramedic assignments
  • Incident reporting as described in the Ambulance Ordinance Section 610.712 (f) that did not result in injury (e.g., a parked ambulance struck by an inattentive driver)
  • Non-ambulance service EMS contractors with service disruptions lasting longer than two (2) hours
  • Planned exercise/training operations
  • Medication or supply shortage notifications

Messages received in the mailbox are time-stamped and electronically acknowledged. Required responses to these notifications will come from an EMS Staff member assigned to the issue the next business day.

 

Need a LEMSIS password reset?

You don’t need to contact the Duty Officer for routine password resets.

If you are unable to access your LEMSIS Licensing Portal or Elite (ePCR/BHR) account, there is a self-service “Forgot Password” process at the bottom of the CoSD LEMSIS Licensing Portal: cosd.imagetrendlicense.com

  1. Click “Forgot password?” 
  2. Enter your username, email address on record, and your last name. A password reset link will be sent to the email attached to your LEMSIS account
  3. Follow the steps in the email 
  4. All passwords must have at least eight characters and include at least: 
  • 1 capital letter
  • 1 symbol
  • 1 number 

 

If you are unable to access your LEMSIS Resource Bridge account, there is a self-service password reset process on the CoSD LEMSIS Resource Bridge Portal: cosd.imagetrendresourcebridge.com

  1. Click “Forgot your password?” 
  2. Enter your email address on record. A password reset link will be sent to the email attached to your LEMSIS account
  3. Follow the steps in the email 
  4. All passwords must have at least eight characters and include at least: 
  • 1 capital letter
  • 1 symbol
  • 1 number