Another HFD Terms Question...

[mfn002]

What are the different categories of 10-50s (Deceased Person)? I've heard such codes as 10-50 B1, etc. What do they mean?

 

[skipgoulet]

Does Houston have their own set of codes? What you might do is look at a copy of "Police Call" magazine at your closest Radio Shack store. Towards the back of the book they show district maps and department-specific 10 codes of selected cities and agencies. I THINK that I've Houston's on there. Either way, it would be worth a look. If they use the APCO 10-codes, then a 10-50 is a motor vehicle accident and then they should specify with or without injuries, fatality,etc. In Odessa, a major accident is a 10-150, and any fatality or dead body is a 10-118.

There was a story on the TV news a couple of weeks ago that stated that anyone receiving any sort of federal funds would now have to scrap all of their 10-codes in favor of "plain language" transmissions. You couldn't say 10-4 any more only affirmative or acknowledged. I don't remember what the deadline for implementation is but it's going to be interesting to see how it goes.

 

[mfn002]

Police Call is horribly outdated. Most comms are in Plain English, but they still do use certain codes for whatever reason.
If the story about retiring tencodes is true, then my city (Bryan) is screwed because they are still making dispatchers memorize them!

 

[skipgoulet]

Police Call is horribly outdated. Most comms are in Plain English, but they still do use certain codes for whatever reason.
If the story about retiring tencodes is true, then my city (Bryan) is screwed because they are still making dispatchers memorize them!

Boy..you're really in trouble if they're making the dispatchers memorize the 10 codes. You know Aggies can't memorize s**t!

 

[mfn002]

It's pretty bad, they don't even use correct medic terminology when toning out calls (TERMINOLOGY?!! WHAT TERMINOLOGY?!!!!). I used to have a connection in the Sherriff's Department who used to arrange time for me to sit in with dispatch. What's hillarious is that they have all this super high tech equipment and use super low tech language.

 

[rattlerbb01]

It really isn't that big of a deal. The paramedics don't really care what the terminology used is. Just get the symptoms, history, and location as it is available and they are happy.

 

[mfn002]

Mainly, it's just PD that's a little crazy (though the lack of proper EMS terminology drives me nuts for some reason). In comparison, College Station is a lot more professional, and does not use the codes as much (although they use some other weird code system that I have no idea how it works).

 

[nfd_rescue]

From what the departments here have been told, all agencies should have stopped using 10-codes in favor of plain english as of October 2006. It's all part of the NIMS system that FEMA has come up with. So far, the police departments have failed to adapt themselves to it, but they are trying...