This semester, the Washington University Emergency Support Team (EST) will no longer provide 24/7 service due to new COVID-19 protocols.

Starting Sept. 28, EST will operate from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Although the first day of class took place Sept. 14, the two-week delay will allow all EST members to familiarize themselves with their organization’s new safety protocols regarding COVID-19.

Emergency Support Team member Gaby Gonzalez and her collegue rush to an intoxication call in Liggett Hall to help stabilize the intoxicated student in September, 2014.

“[The reason for the delay] is to make sure that we have these protocols down, because this is a new clinical workflow for our team,” EST President senior Claire Wild said. “We want to make sure that everyone is well versed and has this mastered before we go into service at all…and then also to take care of the students’ well-being too, who are administering this care, just to make sure that we’re not doing too much right away.”

While on call, EST members will wear N-95 masks, goggles, gloves and gowns in order to be able to safely interact with those involved in an emergency.

“We probably will look a little bit silly running around campus,” EST member junior Lauren Puplampu said. “We are in goggles, we have N-95 masks, we have surgical gowns and we also have to wear gloves when we respond to calls, and so I think that with all this PPE [personal protective equipment] like we’re totally protected…because of how strict our decontamination rules are.”

Still, despite the abundance of PPE, the pandemic still impacts EST’s ability to operate around the clock. Concerns about social distancing in the office where EST members generally congregate during night shifts are one reason why operations will not continue late into the night this semester. However, according to EST Field Director senior Julia Giordano, the reduced operating hours should not significantly impact service, due to the fact that the majority of EST’s work takes place during daytime hours.

“[Most EST calls taking place at night] is actually a misconception,” Giordano said. “Most of our calls are during the day, so given the shift hours that we have, we anticipate most of our calls will still be responded to…The calls that we get most often at night are usually alcohol-related calls, which is why we’re still doing weekends from 9:00 p.m. to midnight.”

During operating hours, limitations will also be imposed on the size of duty crews, who often end up sharing spaces and being in close contact.

“One of the other big changes is our duty crew size,” Giordano said. “Typically our duty crews are three to four members. This semester they’re going to only be two members. Again, this is just to try to limit transmission on calls and streamline all the processes that are going on.”

Both Wild and Giordano are open to the possibility of increasing EST’s hours of operation later in the semester, and plan to revisit the idea one month after operations have resumed.

“We’re just going to reevaluate everything and see where we’re at and consider adding more hours back,” Giordano said. “Likely that would be the 9:00 p.m. to midnight shifts on non-weekend days, but there’s still a lot to consider. I think one of the most important factors is whether our team members are able to get home safely at that late of an hour every night of the week.”

However, Wild maintained that the wellness of EST members themselves should also be an important consideration when drawing up hours for the semester.

“Because our team members are volunteers, we’re not getting credit or pay for this, it becomes a question of balance with the patient care that we are able to give and the wellbeing of our own team members,” Wild said. “So when we made that decision, we felt that it was the best compromise, at least in the beginning, to make sure that we’re taking care of our own people as well as the population of students that we serve.”

Although Puplampu hoped that EST would eventually be able to bring hours back to their pre-pandemic levels, she acknowledged that decisions to expand hours should be made with the needs of EST members in mind.

“We are eager to expand those hours,” Puplampu said. “We like being in service as much as we possibly can, but we do recognize how much more we’re asking for when we ask members to stay even an extra hour.”