There are many recent articles published in scientific literature on the topic of work-related stress. However, these studies focus on the effects of stress on the workers and not on the impact that stress could have on their work performance—more specifically on the calltaker’s (emergency dispatcher (ED)) performance and consequently on the whole Emergency Medical Service (EMS). : The objective of this study was to assess whether the number of consecutive hours worked...

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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.

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Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems often utilize a structured approach to 911 call-taking and emergency medical dispatch (EMD). One such system, Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®), categorizes 911 calls into EMD determinant codes based on problem and severity, with response priorities and resources determined at the local level through a predetermined response matrix. In this study, we proposed a methodology for utilizing historical clinical data to increase the accuracy of 911 call prioritization of patients with time-sensitive critical illness...

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