I agree the best Safety plan can be compromised by the actions of a single individual. I also accept that most EMS operators, including PHI, have good plans and procedures on the books.
Without pointing fingers at any specific EMS operator...I also suggest that unless the operator has an effective oversight of those very plans and procedures to confirm conformance and detect any variation with the view towards ensuring constant compliance...at that point they become part of the problem.
As an industry, with the demonstrated track record that exists, it is plain as the nose on our faces.....that has not been done across the board. Granted, that is a broad brushed statement that is unfair to those few operators or operations that do good work and exercise excellent safety practices, but as an industry evaluation, I think you have to agree with my position.
Lets use the recent New Orleans disaster for an example. A review of the New Orleans Emergency Management Program as posted on the official City of New Orleans web site, clearly shows the plan was unworkable and made assumptions that just were not going to happen. Actual events confirmed the plan even as written was not followed. We see the results of that failure on the nightly news.
That is my point....Safety programs are only as good as the committment to use them. If the safety climate of the operator gives lip service to the policy and procedures, the plan is dead on arrival, just like so many EMS crews.
Has any EMS operator taken a 24 hour Safety Stand Down after a fatal accident? One operator had two fatal crashes in one week....did they take any drastic measures to reassess what they were doing? If they did....lets hear about it?
When I say "maul" the operator....what I mean is ensure the root causes for the accident are examined and not merely the poor slob who makes a bad decision and is usually not around to defend himself. Probably the worse situation is to be that poor "hurt" slob who has to rebuild his life physically and emotionally while being lunch for the lawyers and folks trying to shift all the blame his way in the hopes of escaping any harm themselves.
It is always easy to blame the crew....and ignore the role other factors and people played. We should learn from every accident or incident and use them to prevent similar occurences whenever possible. I suggest the EMS industry does a poor job of that.