[ES-ALS-Providers] Emergency Medical Dispatch

[Hollye Carpenter]

EMD - Emergency Medical Dispatch 

 

In early September the Eastern Shore of Virginia 911 Center is implementing the APCO Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Program. Although EMD has previously been used in the 911 Center, this new program will provide consistency in the call-taking of EMS incidents, priority of EMS incidents, and pre-arrival instructions. Throughout the last several weeks, 911 Communications Officers have been completing the necessary training needed to implement the program. Key components of the EMD program include using key questions when call-taking to determine the priority of EMS incidents and providing pre-arrival medical instructions. EMS incidents determined to be Priority 1 incidents will be announced as such on dispatch. The guide-cards used to determine the priority of EMS incidents are based on the APCO EMD program, used throughout the nation, and have been reviewed by the local OMD. Potentially there will be an increase in the dispatch of Priority 1 EMS incidents, as the criteria will be based on the information provided by callers using the EMD guide-cards to determine priority. There will be occasions where a patient's condition may be different than dispatched upon arrival of EMS crews. Generally call-takers must base the assigned priority and pre-arrival instructions on limited information provided by callers over the telephone. The EMD program will be evaluated and discussed at Fire/EMS Commission meetings over the next several months. Any questions from EMS providers about the EMD program should be directed to the leadership in your organization.



Jeff Flournoy

Director - ESVA 911 Center

Center - 757-787-0911

Office - 757-787-0909


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://vaems.org/pipermail/es-als-providers_vaems.org/attachments/20070822/1b283175/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 848 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://vaems.org/pipermail/es-als-providers_vaems.org/attachments/20070822/1b283175/attachment.jpe