Law mandates new training for 911 dispatchers

[MMiz]

State law mandates new training for 911 dispatchers

Indiana state law will soon change the way 911 dispatchers help callers with medical emergencies.

According to New Albany Fire Department Major Tim Kron, the state law will change beginning July 1, regarding how 911 dispatchers respond once they send out ambulances throughout the state. Those dispatchers will have to be trained as Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD). That training will enable dispatchers to give what could be life-saving aid on a step-by-step basis via the telephone until an ambulance arrives at a scene. Kron said dispatchers will not have to memorize the variety of methods of aid. Instead, they will have a set series of questions to ask in a manual, and a set of responses that will depend on the caller's answers. They will also have written instructions on how to help callers with their emergencies.

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[rescuecpt]

Do you all have EMD? Our 911 dispatches EMD, but if we take a call on the business line or from another agency, we don't do EMD as it's not required... but we try to. The "manual" is actually a bunch of large cards on a flip thing, kind of like a rolo-dex, with all the questions to ask and care to give. Pretty cool, at least I think so.

 

[Wingnut]

Our system has the computer program that does that now.

Although I can't say much for the dispatchers... :blink:

 

[Jon]

Originally posted by rescuecpt@Feb 8 2005, 01:48 PM
The "manual" is actually a bunch of large cards on a flip thing, kind of like a rolo-dex, with all the questions to ask and care to give. Pretty cool, at least I think so.

Yeah - both of the private Co's I've worked for have had a set of the "apco cards" buried somewhere in dispatch for the "oh, No" calls..... easy to use.....My county uses an "EMD style" sytstem, but I don't know if they are actually "EMD" certed.


Jon

 

[PArescueEMT]

My company does not have them, but since I started class, I found out that it has been a law in NJ since the mid 1990's for ALL dispatchers to have EMD

 

[rescuecpt]

I don't think you have to dipatch using EMD, just take the pts information using EMD. That's what my FD does here. We still get "Sig 16 for chest pain"... whereas in Commack with EMD we get "Sig 16 chest pain 10-C-3 response". All it really means to me is ALS vs BLS.

 

[MMiz]

Our company is dispatched by a large EMS operation 45 minutes away. All the dispatchers are at least EMT-Bs with EMTD certs. Some of the dispatchers are EMT-Paramedics.

They still have a card system they can use, but it's nice knowing they have the training.

 

[emtal233]

At my vollie as rescucapt prob already know we use emd, well we are disp by the police dept and they end up giving us the emd as we are pulling up to the job. IMO the whole alpha bravo charlie delta echo thing is another way for some people to pick and choose their jobs. In NYC911 i'm assigned a job and their type of emd is on top just another way of doing things like everything else...

 

[coloradoemt]

It is my belief that no matter what system you are in you should spend some time in dispatch watching, especially when they get really busy. I've done it a couple of times and left with some respect for what they do and all the decisions they need to make.

 

[Wingnut]

We had to do 4 hours in dispatch as part of our clinicals. It was pretty cool to see how the whole system works.

 

[shorthairedpunk]

EMD is a hairy thing. It adds a huge liability to dispatchers. I watched a news story a year or so back about it. I believe it was in texas that a man flipped his vehicle into a creek and was submerging when he called 911. The dispatchers tried to get his location to dispatch rescue to. He ended up drowning. His family sued the 911 operation because they did not tell him how to get out of the vehicle. The courts ruled that since the 911 center was EMD, that it was within their required scope to help the man get out of the vehicle.

the settlement was multiple millions

 

[Chimpie]

WHAT? Since when is it 911's job to tell someone how to get out of a overturned, submerged vehicle? :huh: :angry: That's just plain stupid.

Is it written ANYWHERE in ANY 911 center a set of directions on "How to get out of a overturned, submerged *enter make/model here*"? Grr. This is just one of those lawsuits that is just plain, f'in stupid.

 

[rescuecpt]

Originally posted by shorthairedpunk@Feb 17 2005, 02:09 PM
EMD is a hairy thing. It adds a huge liability to dispatchers. I watched a news story a year or so back about it. I believe it was in texas that a man flipped his vehicle into a creek and was submerging when he called 911. The dispatchers tried to get his location to dispatch rescue to. He ended up drowning. His family sued the 911 operation because they did not tell him how to get out of the vehicle. The courts ruled that since the 911 center was EMD, that it was within their required scope to help the man get out of the vehicle.

the settlement was multiple millions

That was actually a case in Florida with a young woman, and there was no lawsuit, only lobbying for better ways to track where cell calls are coming from. Unless there is another case, but I researched this for my dispatching class a couple months ago.

 

[rescuecpt]

In another incident, Karla Guiterrez of Florida’s car veered off the road into a canal. She called 911 and was able to speak to the operator for 3-1/2 minutes before her car was submerged. Due to her panic and her unfamiliarity with the area, she was unable to give the dispatcher a clear location. It took emergency personnel almost one hour to locate her car, and by that time she had drowned.

This was a snippet from my paper, the article was found here at Dispatch Monthly.

 

[SafetyPro2]

All our dispatchers are EMD trained, but I don't know how much its actually used, since (other than in our town) ALS gets dispatched for all medical calls.

One of the dispatchers actually came and went through our last EMT course for our new staff. They apparently had a blast having him in the class.

As far as the cell phone issue, California actually passed a law requiring 911 centers to come up with a way to get location info from cell phones, and to route cell phone calls to the appropriate local center (currently, all cell phone 911 calls in the area go to CHP's main dispatch center). So far, most dispatch centers not really implemented the requirement due to ongoing technical problems. I do know that my cell phone has E911 capability, with a GPS locator that can provide the info to a properly set-up dispatch center.

 

[shorthairedpunk]

Originally posted by rescuecpt+Feb 17 2005, 06:08 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (rescuecpt @ Feb 17 2005, 06:08 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-shorthairedpunk@Feb 17 2005, 02:09 PM
EMD is a hairy thing. It adds a huge liability to dispatchers. I watched a news story a year or so back about it. I believe it was in texas that a man flipped his vehicle into a creek and was submerging when he called 911. The dispatchers tried to get his location to dispatch rescue to. He ended up drowning. His family sued the 911 operation because they did not tell him how to get out of the vehicle. The courts ruled that since the 911 center was EMD, that it was within their required scope to help the man get out of the vehicle.

the settlement was multiple millions

That was actually a case in Florida with a young woman, and there was no lawsuit, only lobbying for better ways to track where cell calls are coming from. Unless there is another case, but I researched this for my dispatching class a couple months ago. [/b][/quote]
No, this was a young black man, like I said, I believe in Texas, and it was a multi million dollar settlement

 

[rescuecpt]

Can you find an article? I'd be interested in reading it. Thanks.

 

[shorthairedpunk]

Like I said, I watched a news story, you read articles, watch tv.

 

[rescuecpt]

Originally posted by shorthairedpunk@Feb 18 2005, 01:29 PM
Like I said, I watched a news story, you read articles, watch tv.

Um, ok. Thanks for all of the effort you put into supporting your claim.

 

[shorthairedpunk]

The story you reference is a 13 year old girl whos sister called 911 when she was in the pool, the dispatcher kept her on the line, but offered no advice per policy, when the general consensu was that had CPR or other avice been given survivability would have been increased.

"I watched a news story a year or so back about it. I believe it was in texas that a man flipped his vehicle into a creek and was submerging when he called 911. The dispatchers tried to get his location to dispatch rescue to. He ended up drowning. His family sued the 911 operation because they did not tell him how to get out of the vehicle. The courts ruled that since the 911 center was EMD, that it was within their required scope to help the man get out of the vehicle."

Note the fact that this was a television program, referencing the death of a male, which I watched a year or so ago.