In emergency dispatching, pre-alerts are used to send responders to calls prior to getting a final dispatch code. Some studies have showed that pre-alerts can effectively reduce dispatch time for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, potentially improving overall patient outcome. However, there is also a potential risk in running lights-and-siren on non-fully triaged calls. Although pre-alerts have been used for several years, no research studies have demonstrated its benefit, in general. The goal of this study was to determine...
The Emergency Medical Dispatcher's (EMD's) selection of the most appropriate Chief Complaint Protocol is one of the most important elements in emergency dispatching. Choosing the correct Chief Complaint ensures that the correct information is gathered, the correct instructions and help provided, and the right resources sent. The selection of the MPDS Sick Person Protocol is often one of the most difficult for EMDs. The primary objective of this study is to compare the EMD's selection of the Sick Person Protocol with on-scene...
Identification of persons based on verbal descriptions is one of the key skills of police work. Gathering as much description information as possible immediately following the event—for example, at the point of emergency police dispatch—could substantially improve the accuracy of suspect descriptions, the ability to locate missing persons quickly, and other key outcomes of effective police work. The primary objective of this study was to determine what amount and type of persons description information is collected by...
When I was younger, I spent a lot of time at science fairs—so much time, in fact, that two of the three new cars my parents bought during my childhood were purchased while I was busy presenting three-sided foamcore posters to skeptical rounds of judges. My favorite project was the one I did in fourth grade. I wanted to find out whether heated gels were stronger or weaker than cold ones. In other words, would heating or cooling my bubble-blowing syrup help me make bigger bubbles? It was a great project. It was messy and required me to...
