Dispatch has sent you to the scene of a fight at a local sporting event. Since the EMS system is busy and there are very few ambulances available, dispatch has instructed you to call for additional units after arrival on scene. On scene, you find that the police are present and what appear to be 10 to 12 people are seated or lying on the ground, many with blood on their faces and clothing. When would you call for additional ambulances?

Scene size-up is a process that emergency medical services (EMS) use to assess a scene before and after arriving, to ensure the scene is safe and to summon the right resources. It's a mental process that should take no more than 30 seconds and should occur before attempting to enter the scene.  The process involves: - Reviewing dispatch information: Emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) are trained to extract information that helps determine response priority, numbers of units needed, safety concerns, and even what entrance to use. - Observing the scene for hazards: This includes traffic,... Show more

Scene size-up is a process that emergency medical services (EMS) use to assess a scene before and after arriving, to ensure the scene is safe and to summon the right resources. It's a mental process that should take no more than 30 seconds and should occur before attempting to enter the scene. 

The process involves:
- Reviewing dispatch information: Emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) are trained to extract information that helps determine response priority, numbers of units needed, safety concerns, and even what entrance to use.
- Observing the scene for hazards: This includes traffic, unstable structures, downed electrical lines, swift-moving water, violence, explosions or toxic gas exposure, environmental conditions, extremes in weather, rain, snow, storms, or other acts of nature, hazardous substances, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive.
- Determining the mechanism of injury or illness: This includes establishing body substance isolation.
- Determining the number of patients: This can be gathered through observations of the scene and questions of bystanders. 

The five components of the size-up are: number of patients, mechanism of injury/nature of illness, resource determination, standard-precautions determination, and scene safety. 

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