Emergency communication centers often field a
large number of calls requesting transportation
for patients from one care facility to another.
Transferring patients between facilities can be
frustrating for nearly everyone, including care facility
staff, emergency dispatchers, communication center
leaders, and responders.
Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs), at emergency communication centers that have implemented the Medical Priority Dispatch System® (MPDS) protocols, use scripted questions to interrogate people calling 9-1-1. Based on this interrogation, case determinant codes are assigned– to identify the specific patient condition and enable optimal allocation and deployment of resources to ensure appropriate field responses. MPDS determinant codes for both OBVIOUS and EXPECTED DEATH exist for patients that are clearly and irreversibly dead, or have a terminal illness accompanied...
While teaching a Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®) refresher course in Canton, Illinois, USA, at the Canton County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center, I was asked an interesting question by a student: "What do you do when a second party caller doesn't know the answer to your questions?" The student's question was inspired by a recent investigation request from the 911 center's local fire department involving a case dispatched as a BRAVO-level response to a fall patient. Emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) use the MPDS to assign response determinant codes to incidents based...
