Scene Control

[AnthonyM83]

I would take a much more aggressive approach at those scenes.

Stand back and yell with authority: I NEED EVERYONE TO GET WAY BACK BEFORE I CAN HELP YOUR FRIENDS. IF I DON'T HAVE SPACE, I CAN'T HELP THEM.

I will literally stand back and wait until I have space, as it's a scene safety issue. There have been physical fights that have occurred in those crowds between worried family and medics or between bystanders and patient. I wasn't on the call, but an old partner had someone unload a clip into his patient's head while holding c-spine. We take crowds pretty seriously, as far as safety.

ALSO, pick a bystander who looks like he might have authority of the group, pull him to your side and tell him that he NEEDS to have everyone step way back....like meters and meters back, because you can't hear your patient. "If you want to help you friend, you have to get everyone back for me. Understand? You're our security." (With eye contact...so now he feels the pressure of that responsibility and he's more likely to do it...and likely he's the Type A personality, so now he has task to exert his stress on)

Did you have a partner? Sometimes one EMT/Medic does only safety / crowd control watch.

So my advice is basically

-Speak Up LOUD

-Tell them you require space in order to even start treating patient

-Get an ally from the crowd to help

And if that doesn't work, get everyone in the ambulance for the rest of the assessment if you can. And call for PD early. Ask for emergent/code3 response for crowd control (since it's affecting patient care).