The difficulty of evaluating the mental status, particularly alertness, is more pronounced in the medical dispatch context, where the Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) must work through the eyes and ears of the caller, who is most likely a layperson. Determining true non-alertness and the level of its effects on outcome needs to be solved to perfect the interrogation and response-coding processes at dispatch.

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In April, 2014 MEDIC Emergency Medical Services (MEDIC EMS) began activation of call-taker initiated activation of stroke alerts based off of the Stroke Diagnostic Tool on Protocol 28 (Stroke [CVA/Transient Ischemic Attack [TIA])—a tool in the Medical Priority Dispatch System™ (MPDS®) (Version 13, 2016, Priority Dispatch Corp., Salt Lake City, UT, USA). Stroke alerts are sent to the local stroke certified receiving facilities and then to the responding ambulance of the MPDS stroke Determinant Code. Once clear evidence of a stroke (Suffix J) is determined, call takers advise local...

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The difficulty of evaluating mental status, particularly alertness, is more pronounced in the medical dispatch context, where the Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) must work through the eyes and ears of the caller, who is most likely a layperson. Determining true non-alertness and the level of its effects on outcome needs to be solved to perfect the interrogation and response-coding processes at dispatch.

Read more