Andre Jones, Assistant Executive Director of Communications and Control Centers for Hamad Medical Corporation, talks about what it's like being in emergency communications in Qatar and dispenses some leadership best practices...
SHOULD WE ASK CALLERS "IS ANYONE PINNED (TRAPPED)?" DURING MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS (MVAs)? We should! The question directs callers to pay attention to what matters most. For a traffic collision, the higher the speed of the vehicle, the higher the chances an occupant suffers severe injuries. After a serious crash, the absorbed kinetic energy can cause the vehicle to deform significantly, displacing parts of the vehicle into the interior. This displacement frequently limits an occupant's ability to move or be removed. When there is need for extrication, deformity and damage hinder an occupant's...
Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) quality can have life-or-death implications. The quality of service provided by PSAPs is inconsistent due to the lack of mandatory standards of care at the national, state, and local levels. Public demands and duties placed on PSAPs have grown due to technological changes, civil cases alleging negligence, and the emergence of national recommended standards of care, yet governments at all levels have been slow to create governance structures to reinforce adherence to standards...
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...
With advances in wireless technology, the volume of unintentional calls, or misdials, to 911 call centers has steadily increased over the past 10 years. While call centers have been working to manage call volume, there is very little systematic research on how to develop policy for handling Active Silent calls where callers may be unable to verbally communicate. The primary objective in this study was to first establish how dispatchers manage nuisance calls, and then provide a systematic way of determining how dispatchers can maximize their opportunities...
Isabel talks with Bonni Stockman, the associate director of instructor services for IAED, and Jordan Sebresos, a senior instructional designer for Priority Dispatch. They discuss training needs in a dispatch center, the best methods for educating emergency dispatchers, and the qualities of a good instructor...
Isabel talks with Dr. Conrad Fivaz, the clinical director of Priority Solutions, and Gigi Marshall Knight, Emergency Communication Nurse System (ECNS) program administrator. They discuss the goals of secondary triage, the importance of studying low acuity calls, and how ECNS affects emergency dispatchers...
While Structure Fire is not the most common Chief Complaint handled by Emergency Fire Dispatchers (EFDs), the high death toll and other serious consequences that result make structure fires one of the most important types of calls EFDs handle. The time needed to appropriately and effectively prioritize these calls can be evaluated using a time standard called Call Prioritization Time (CPT). In this study, we evaluate CPT for centers using the Fire Priority Dispatch System (FPDS). The primary objective in this study was to determine CPT for the FPDS...
Telephone nurse triage at the 9-1-1 dispatch point is relatively new in the United States despite its ability to significantly reduce expensive and scarce Emergency Medical Services (EMS) resource use and emergency department visits. A previous study investigated the distribution of 9-1-1-triaged call incident types within the Emergency Communications Nurse System (ECNS) and found that 9-1-1 triage systems yielded a variety of low acuity complaints that were handled by the Emergency Communications Nurse (ECN). This study explored the current and potential utilization...
Seizures are episodes of sudden, severe, disorganized neurological activity in the brain, characterized by uncontrolled movement and, in many cases, altered consciousness. Seizures account for 1% of all emergency department visits, and are a leading cause of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) activation and transport. Patients who experience a seizure with no medical history of seizure disorder challenge the prehospital provider to identify an underlying cause for the event and attempt to treat immediately. s:This study aimed to identify the clinical profile of...