Editorial: ‘Trauma’ View of 911 Was Confusing

It’s definitely produced, filmed and billed as entertainment, but NBC’s “Trauma” series nevertheless presents a view of emergency medical operations that many people take as authentic. So, to the extent that the TV show presents reality in a distorted way, it’s counterproductive for America’s public safety personnel. But by the time Monday’s episode was over, focusing on 911 and the San Francisco comm center, the viewers must have been just confused, not entertained. The comm center was operating “analog” because of some unspoken technical problem, and for some reason that meant that every response time was 23-1/2 minutes longer than the agency’s goal. Paramedic Tyler Briggs was upset, ranted sarcastically on the radio, and then stormed down a hallway towards the comm center saying, “They’re lucky if there’s not going to be violence,” a workplace threat so obvious as to be scary. Of course, in pure entertainment fashion, Briggs got “schooled” by a gravely-voice comm center supervisor, who immediately sat him down at a console and made him answer 911 calls and dispatch units on the radio so he’d know how tough it was. As if putting an untrained person on the phones wouldn’t increase your liability way beyond a 30-minute response time. And after that…well, the issue of comm center incompetence and response time delays just disappeared into the relationship problems the other characters were having. Obviously, the episode’s title “Crossed Wires” referred to the characters, not the communications. When the episode was first promoted, public safety leaders were fearful it was another comm center hit piece. As it turned out, it touched so lightly on the issue of communications and response times that the script inaccuracies were obscured. So it was neither a hit piece or a meaningful piece. Just entertainment.