Providing information about possible weapons on scene is an essential objective of police dispatching and clearly valuable to officer safety. However, up to now, no information has been available about how often callers report weapons as "involved or mentioned" in an incident, what types of weapons are most commonly reported, or which incident types most commonly have reported weapons associated with them. The primary objective of this study is to determine which types of weapons are reported most often and on which Police Priority Dispatch System (PPDS®)...
The manner in which calls are handled at the emergency telecommunication center has a significant role in effective management of assistance on the scene. The main information needed to start a response is the location of the incident, which usually means the complete address. The Genova 118 Center has recently modified its standard greeting from "Genova 118" (STD1) to "Genova 118, where do I send the ambulance?" (STD2). To verify whether the new standard reduces the time needed to acquire a complete address during an emergency call...
The current study examines posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom clusters in the context of indirect exposure and compares symptom expression between emergency dispatchers and veterans. Given that a dispatcher's job is inherently different from that of our military, it would be expected that their PTSD symptoms are different as well. Understanding differences in presenting PTSD symptoms in emergency dispatchers relative to a group of veterans for the purposes of providing insight into prevention and treatment. We hypothesized that emergency dispatchers...
The objectives of this study were to compare hospital-confirmed acute myocardial infarction (AMI) outcomes with emergency medical dispatch (EMD) low acuity cases and to identify any common characteristics of the AMIs assigned to those low-acuity codes. This was a retrospective study utilizing EMD, emergency medical services (EMS), and hospital discharge datasets, collected at two emergency communication centers in Salt Lake County, Utah. The study sample included all hospital-confirmed medical cases that arrived to the hospital via EMS. Primary outcome measures...
Some have argued that there is no need for a dispatcher stroke evaluation because emergency medical services (EMS) responders can perform a more detailed, in-person stroke evaluation in the field. In fact, little or no research exists to determine whether dispatch stroke evaluations are actually redundant when compared with EMS field responder assessments. The purpose of this study is to determine whether some strokes identified by emergency medical dispatchers (EMDs) are not identified by field paramedics. The descriptive study utilized data from...
We sought to study a recently implemented prehospital emergency care system and its effects on the treatment level and prognosis of stroke patients. Prior to the introduction of the new system, no dispatch triage or prehospital care was available, and most patients accessed emergency care directly, without calling an emergency number. From April 2014 to March 2015, at our associate hospital's emergency department, 325 first-time acute stroke patients were admitted to the emergency department. This cohort was divided according to hospital admission method...
The first opportunity for prompt identification of a stroke in the prehospital environment often occurs when people telephone for emergency medical services. A better understanding of how callers and dispatchers communicate during emergency calls may assist dispatcher identification of stroke. To conduct a systematic review of the literature to determine communication factors associated with the identification of stroke during emergency calls. Six databases were searched (CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, Informit, MEDLINE and PsychInfo). To meet...
The findings of a recent study suggest that a patient's inability to complete all three tasks in a stroke identification tool used by Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) is a uniquely strong predictor of stroke. To examine the characteristics of the 17 cases in which the patient was unable to complete all three tasks in the Stroke Diagnostic Tool (SDxT). The retrospective descriptive study utilized stroke data from three sources in Salt Lake County, Utah, USA—Emergency Medical Dispatch, emergency medical services (EMS), and receiving hospitals—for...
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...
Based on known unpublished sources (e.g. emergency communication center managers, training officers, dispatchers), emergency communication centers (ECCs) around the world provide training for new emergency dispatchers and continuing dispatcher education. However, little information has been collected, or shared, between ECCs regarding specific training methods that are being used, which methods are successful, and what factors influence their success. The objective of this study was to describe what training methods are currently being used in emergency...
