Emergency dispatch has become partially automated, with an automatic voice giving the location and nature of a call to assigned units at the push of a button.
Dispatch supervisor Christy Terry said the updated system, which has been in use for about a month, helps dispatchers stay on the line and continue to gather information while emergency medical and fire personnel are dispatched.
The only major piece of dispatching units is getting further information to them, including directions and updating them on patients' details.
Terry said she's used it a few times when filling in at the dispatch center and it has simplified the call process.
"It's very easy to use," she said. "It tones them, tells them where to go, what's going on ... it just frees up a lot of time."
Previously, she said, dispatchers had to stop talking with their callers and dispatch units directly before getting back to them.
Dispatchers have about two hours of additional training to use the new software, she explained, and the feedback from them has been largely positive.
"Ideally, we're just trying to to make it easier on everyone," she said.
A future option is to use computer-aided dispatch, or CAD, with compact terminals in emergency vehicles. This would allow the dispatcher to send updated information as a message rather than speaking to emergency workers over the radio. This further reduces interruptions with the caller, she said, and eliminates some repetition -- dispatchers can simply send information as they log it.
Moreover, she said, dispatchers often are trying to listen to a patient as well as emergency workers simultaneously.
"A lot of times you've got to split your ears," she said.
The CAD system would make that situation less likely, she explained.
Firefighter-paramedic Scott Larson said the department has pushed to get this system in place for a while and finally managed it over the last two budget cycles.
Larson said it's a huge help on his end of the dispatch interaction.
There's only one voice fire and EMS personnel need to learn to listen for, he said, rather than trying to learn every dispatcher's particular accents and speaking patterns.
Additionally, the voice in question is uniform in all situations. With a human speaking, he said, emergency workers can often parse their stress level and that, in turn, can stress out the workers.
"This is uninformed, this is one sound," he said.
Moreover, he said, the new tones are a trio of ramping tones rather than a pair of loud, sustained, very jarring beeps.
The new tones are adequate to wake someone up, he said, but less likely to cause a significant amount of cardiac stress.
Reducing that stress helps the workers in question think more clearly through the situation they're headed toward.
"It keeps us in a better frame of mind," he said.
It also provides redundancy for the department's communications, he said, because the dispatch is now primarily delivered over the web but radio still gives the police and fire departments a backup plan.
"We hope to continue to build on it," he said.
General News on 05/08/2019