Rapid identification of sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and delivery of bystander chest compressions in patients with ventricular fibrillation are key elements in the chain of survival. However, time to bystander compressions can be greatly affected by a wide variety of barriers, some beyond an EMD's control. The aim of this study is to identify and quantify the impact that barriers have on the time taken to achieve bystander compressions for suspected OHCAs. This retrospective, quantitative cohort...
Isabel talks with Dr. Mike McEvoy, EMS Coordinator for Saratoga County. They discuss common myths about bystander and responder potential for opioid exposure, the symptoms of an opioid overdose, and how to keep callers safe...
Isabel talks with Jamie Foster, a trainer for the South Western Ambulance Service in the U.K. They discuss what "transgender" means, which medical protocols are impacted by the caller's gender, and how the EMD can balance getting the right information with giving good customer service...
The Emergency Medical Dispatcher's (EMD's) selection of the most appropriate Chief Complaint Protocol is one of the most important elements in emergency dispatching. Choosing the correct Chief Complaint ensures that the correct information is gathered, the correct instructions and help provided, and the right resources sent. The selection of the MPDS Sick Person Protocol is often one of the most difficult for EMDs. The primary objective of this study is to compare the EMD's selection of the Sick Person Protocol with on-scene...
Isabel talks with Kate Dernocoeur, co-writer of Principles of EMD. They discuss how the textbook on EMD was written, the difference between classroom learning and street sense, and the special role of emergency dispatchers in EMS...
The first opportunity for prompt identification of a stroke in the prehospital environment often occurs when people telephone for emergency medical services. A better understanding of how callers and dispatchers communicate during emergency calls may assist dispatcher identification of stroke. To conduct a systematic review of the literature to determine communication factors associated with the identification of stroke during emergency calls. Six databases were searched (CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, Informit, MEDLINE and PsychInfo). To meet...
The findings of a recent study suggest that a patient's inability to complete all three tasks in a stroke identification tool used by Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) is a uniquely strong predictor of stroke. To examine the characteristics of the 17 cases in which the patient was unable to complete all three tasks in the Stroke Diagnostic Tool (SDxT). The retrospective descriptive study utilized stroke data from three sources in Salt Lake County, Utah, USA—Emergency Medical Dispatch, emergency medical services (EMS), and receiving hospitals—for...
Continuous Dispatch Education (CDE) is ongoing training for Emergency Dispatchers, Quality Improvement Specialists and Emergency Telecommunicators (ETC). Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) wanted to improve current compliance performance to the Medical Priority Dispatch System™ (MPDS®) utilizing CDE. This study reports on the effectiveness of CDE efforts and staff motivation in completing CDE. The primary objectives in this study were to establish if structured CDE improved calltaker performance and to gather information about staff perceptions of CDE...
During a given incident, dispatchers are under high stress balancing the workload of listening, understanding, recording, and responding to an unfolding event. These personnel work in a high stakes environment, where seconds can mean life and death. They are called upon to be the voice of reason and calm during traumatic events, and must follow policy and procedures in effectively communicating event information to a number of different user groups. The goal of this work was to demonstrate how a predictive workload equation can be used to evaluate cognitive workload of a dispatcher during a representati
The following case is a medical emergency call handled by a large metropolitan emergency medical service (EMS) agency. This agency handles over 12,000 emergency and non-emergency ambulance calls per month in an area over 270 square miles, with a population of around 500,000.The emergency medical dispatcher (EMD) used the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®) version 13.3 (NAE) to handle this call.
