https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • Product Guides
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

View From The Top


Commentary

Public safety needs a better way to triage emergency calls

Public safety needs a better way to triage emergency calls

  • Written by Darrin Reilly / Mission Critical Partners
  • 13th January 2021

The overarching goal of the public-safety community is to ensure that 911 callers receive the most appropriate emergency response as quickly as possible. Lives often are on the line in an emergency, and every second matters.

Achieving a balance between sending the optimal response to an emergency and having it arrive as fast as possible is tricky. In fact, it is analogous to walking a tightrope. To achieve the former, many emergency communications centers (ECCs) rely on standard protocols developed for each type of emergency call that they receive, typically law enforcement, fire/rescue and emergency medical.

These protocols enable 911 telecommunicators to systematically query callers to determine the exact nature of their emergency. The answers provided enable telecommunicators to dispatch the appropriate response—both personnel and equipment—and to provide critical prearrival instructions that often mean the difference between life and death.

But it takes time to work through these protocols—occasionally, too much time. Though it doesn’t happen often, when response is delayed, the person experiencing the emergency can be impacted severely. This creates quite a conundrum for the public-safety community. If telecommunicators move too fast through the protocols, they might send the wrong response. If they move too slowly through them, the response might not arrive in time. Both are bad outcomes for the person who needs help.

This challenge is exacerbated by the enormous volume of 911 calls that ECCs handle—about 240 million annually nationwide. This figure is expected to rise significantly during the next few years, driven by sensor-initiated calls generated by smartphones, alarm systems and Internet of Things (IoT) devices (e.g., wearable medical monitors). As call volumes rise, telecommunicators who already are under-staffed, under-trained, and under siege in many ECCs will be subject to even greater pressures as they work to send the correct response in the shortest amount of time.

What the 911 and emergency-response community needs is a better way to triage emergency calls.

A step in that direction was made by the District of Columbia a few years ago. The district launched the “Right Care, Right Now” initiative to address the large number of low-acuity medical calls its ECC receives. Such non-life-threatening medical calls—e.g., sprains, flu-like symptoms, a minor cut requiring stitches, stomach pains—do not qualify as basic life support (BLS) or advanced life support (ALS) incidents. Nevertheless, ECCs from coast to coast receive a lot of them. And when they do, they typically are obligated to dispatch an ambulance/emergency medical technician (EMT)/paramedic to the incident to assess the patient’s condition and, in many cases, transport the patient to an emergency room (ER). The former is required, regardless of the severity of the incident.

The district’s approach centers on a nurse triage line managed by a third-party provider of healthcare services throughout the Washington metropolitan area. When a 911 call is placed, it first is fielded by a 911 telecommunicator. If it is a medical call, the telecommunicator—using prescribed protocols—determines whether the call should be transferred to a registered nurse for triage. If so, the nurse will ask the caller another series of protocol-based questions.

The nurse determines the appropriate medical care for the caller. In some instances, the nurse will work with the patient to schedule a visit with his/her primary-care physician and arrange transport via taxi, ride-sharing service, or family member. If it is determined that the caller should be given immediate care, the call will be transferred back to 911, and a telecommunicator will dispatch an ambulance and any other appropriate response.

While 911 telecommunicators still are involved in the calls, the program is designed to relieve the operational and financial burdens—ambulance responses are expensive— on the emergency-response system in several ways:

  • Transferring low-acuity calls to the nurse frees 911 telecommunicators to handle other calls, reducing response times;
  • Ambulances, which often are overburdened, will be less so because unnecessary runs will be reduced significantly, if not eliminated altogether. Ambulances also will be better maintained, because they will not be on the street constantly;
  • Paramedics and EMTs will be more available to handle life-threatening emergencies; and
  • Emergency rooms won’t be as overrun as they are today, which should enable them to enhance the level of care provided to BLS and ALS patients

Here’s another, more recent, example of 911 call triage. The Partnership for Priority Verified Alarm Response (PPVAR) is working with the alarm industry to reduce the number of unverified alarms—in particular false alarms.

According to the Security Industry Alarm Coalition, alarm companies generate roughly 23 million notifications each year—and nearly 100% of them are unverified. This represents about 10% of the total volume of 911 calls made—and some communities report that alarms account for as much as 20% of all calls to 911. This is a big problem.

PPVAR’s concept involves an algorithm-driven methodology that will apply a score to any given alarm incident. Alarm companies will use the score to decide whether to contact an appropriate emergency response agency. If it does, the agency will use the score to triage the incident and then determine the appropriate response.

The contact between the alarm company and the agency is expected to leverage the ASAP-to-PSAP (Automated Secure Alarm Protocol/Public Safety Answering Point) standard, which enables machine-to-machine transactions. Doing so would reduce the number of voice calls that tie up phone lines and require interaction with a 911 telecommunicator. This is significant, because today every alarm notification generates three to five 911 calls from the alarm company—the original activation, with multiple follow-up calls.

Every ECC could benefit from improved 911 call triage, to ease the strain on telecommunicators, enhance emergency response outcomes and—most importantly—to save more lives.

Darrin Reilly is president and COO of Mission Critical Partners. Headquartered in State College, Pennsylvania, MCP provides consulting services and solutions that support mission-critical communications. He can be emailed at [email protected].

 

Tags: homepage-featured-4 Alerting Systems Analytics Applications Commentary Commentary Newsletters Dispatch/Call-taking Funding Incident Command/Situational Awareness Internet of Things IoT/Smart X Policy PSAP Commentary Public Safety Public Safety Commentary Regional Coordination Software State & Local Government System Operation Tracking, Monitoring & Control View From The Top Commentary

Most Recent


  • AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections
    AT&T this week reported that FirstNet ended 2022 supporting more than 24,000 public-safety agencies with “about” 4.4 million connections, including 377,000 connections that were added during the last three months of 2022—a total that represents more than half of the carrier’s post-paid wireless growth for the quarter. AT&T officials released these figures in conjunction with […]
  • Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand
    Given the reliance on vehicular transportation in the United States, some American cities historically haven’t prioritized being walkable in past planning and or design. But amid an unprecedented shift in the economy toward remote work, those that have are increasingly desirable for prospective residents. A new report from Smart Growth American and Places Platform, “Foot Traffic Ahead […]
  • AT&T FirstNet unleashes robotic dogs for emergency services
    AT&T is releasing robotic hounds from Ghost Robotics as part of the service provider’s FirstNet emergency responder service. In a blog, AT&T VP Lance Spencer explained that the robotic dogs will be connected to AT&T’s network and deployed for public safety, defense, federal and state agencies, local police and fire departments, and commercial customers. “Network-connected robotic dogs can deliver a […]
  • Federal agencies infested by cyberattackers via legit remote-management systems
    It has come to light that hackers cleverly utilized two off-the-shelf remote monitoring and management systems (RMMs) to breach multiple Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agency networks in the US last summer. On Jan. 25, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Unlocking the power of ESInets: Different NG911 provisioning approaches exist; level of control is key differentiator
  • Ransomware? Let's call it what it really is: extortionware
  • Redefining communications for today’s mobile workforces
  • Hi-tech sewer can help safeguard public health, environment and economies

Commentary


How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023

3GPP moves Release 18 freeze date to March 2024

18th January 2023

Do smart cities make safer cities?

  • 1
6th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

AT&T wireless growth keyed by FirstNet—now provides 24,000 agencies with 4.4 million connections dlvr.it/ShY5qH

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Report: Remote work causing offices to empty, but walkable cities still in high demand dlvr.it/ShXM7Z

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

AT&T FirstNet unleashes robotic dogs for emergency services dlvr.it/ShW7p8

27th January 2023
UrgentComm

Federal agencies infested by cyberattackers via legit remote-management systems dlvr.it/ShVhn3

26th January 2023
UrgentComm

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient dlvr.it/ShVS1h

26th January 2023
UrgentComm

MCPTT interworking for critical communications dlvr.it/ShTm3P

26th January 2023
UrgentComm

Self-driving cars present terrorism risk, FBI director says dlvr.it/ShTTHx

26th January 2023
UrgentComm

UK Home Office officially will cut ESN ties with Motorola Solutions in December dlvr.it/ShNjfN

24th January 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.