The Searcy Fire Department and NorthStar EMS are taking several precautions in light of COVID-19 concerns when it comes to responding to emergency calls.
“Starting out, the first thing we obviously wanted to take precautions with is patient screening at dispatch,” said Capt. Corbry Swain, emergency medical coordinator for the Searcy Fire Department. “So basically if someone were to call 911 with a medical emergency right now, they would get forwarded to NorthStar’s dispatch, which is how that would happen normally, but with NorthStar’s dispatch, they are going to do a COVID screening and they are going to basically ask you a series of some simple questions – have you had a fever, have you had flu-like symptoms, a dry cough?