The ‘Great Resignation,’ as it has been dubbed by many, did not spare emergency dispatch agencies. Indeed, emergency service agencies, including dispatch centers, may have been impacted even worse than most other employers. This is particularly unwelcome news, given the already long-standing staffing and recruiting difficulties in the profession. This phenomenon of employees leaving their jobs in large numbers appears to have started sometime after COVID-19 swept across the world in 2020. Several factors, including fear of being exposed to COVID, opportunities to work from home at a new job, and poor pa
High job demands in 9-1-1 centers mean high turnover which place 9-1-1 centers in an understaffed situation. Understanding the public safety telecommunicator perspectives that further describe the life-or-death protective nature of the work can lead to improved retention.
Benchmarking for Public Safety Communication Centers (PSCCs) is relatively new. Recently, professional associations have been working on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to identify a number of performance metrics for call taking, dispatching, technology, quality assurance and administration. The goal of developing these KPIs is to provide fundamental metrics which are inherent in all PSCC work. Yet the standardization of PSCCs’ levels performance to these various KPIs is somewhat limited.
On Dec. 19th 2018 in Las Gatos CA, a 2018 Tesla Model S was dropped off at a tire shop by a tow truck after the owner noticed a low tire message on his vehicles message center. Shortly after 2 PM, while the owner was still present, the Tesla caught fire in the parking lot of the tire shop. The owner and an employee of the tire shop heard a hissing sound coming from the vehicle shortly before flames became visible. The vehicle was never involved in a collision nor was any work being done on it at the time.
Patrick Clark currently serves as the Regional Transport Allocation Center Captain for Monongalia EMS in Morgantown, West Virginia. His team oversees all non-emergent transports for their two local Health Systems along with other facilities within the area. He has worked in EMS for the last 18 years. During this time, he has worked in several roles, including ground and air services along with Critical Care Transport. Along with EMS, he has also worked as a telecommunicator at a 911 system that served a large metropolitan area.
