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ComprehensiveAssessmentofEmergencyMedicalServices <br />75 <br />DRAFTREPORTand911/CommunicationsCenterOperationsStudy <br />TheaverageannualCallAnswertoCallTerminationtimesrangedfromalowof01:38(98seconds)in <br />2011toahighof01:44(104seconds)during2010. <br />Keepinmind;however,thisis telephone CallAnswertoCallTerminationtimewiththe911caller.It is <br />h timereferencedforwhichtimeintervalstandardshavebeen <br />not the CallAnswertoDispatc <br />established.Emergencyresponseagenciesaredispatchedvia radio,not bytelephone.Subsequentlyas <br />isoftenthecase,theTelecommunicatormayinfactdispatchtheresponseagencywhileonthephone <br />withthecallerbefore,orsometimeswellbefore,theyterminatetheconversationwiththecaller;in <br />whichcasethecallanswertodispatchtime maybe lessthantheCallAnswertoCallTerminationtime; <br />whichthen might suggestthattheCallAnswertoDispatchintervalobjectivessuggestedwereachieved. <br />Figure47 <br />CallAnswertoCallDispatch <br />CallAnswertoDispatchTimes <br />Thesubsectionthatfollowsbrieflyaddressesthedataissues <br />Year50%90% <br />encounteredduringtheconductofthisstudy.Despiterepeated <br />20090:00:550:03:00 <br />effortsbyEmergencyServicespersonnel,thisspecifictimeinterval <br />(CallAnswertoDispatch)provedthemostelusiveintermsofthe <br />20100:00:560:02:54 <br />dataavailableanditsreliability;i.e.lackofreliability.Thistable <br />20110:00:530:02:42 <br />representsthelatestefforttoretrievethisdata.Notonlyarethe <br />timesexcessive,theyare221/2timeswhatthereferencedperformancestandardssuggestthatthey <br />shouldbe. <br />Inlayterms,theproblemappearstobeanissueofhowtheincomingcallsarecodedandthecurrent <br />rnot)sort911callsfrom all calls.Manyhoursofmonitoring <br />CAD­ä­·;’x­capabilitiesto(o <br />CommunicationsCenteractivityviaradioandintheCenteritselfhasdemonstratedrepeatedlythat911 <br />calls are beingdispatchedinfarlessthanthe23minutesindicatedinFigure47.Consideringthe <br />/šÒ“·äx­recentapprovaltopurchasenewCADsystemsoftware,andits(hopefully)expedientarrival <br />andinstallation,itwasdeterminedthatfurthereffortsbystafftoassessthisissuewouldbenon <br />productive. <br />TheData <br />TheavailabilityofandaccessibilitytouseabledatafromtheCommunicationsCentersCADsystemwasa <br />concernexpressedfromtheveryoutsetofthisstudybytheCountyitself. <br />Typicallyaju©z­7z-·zš“x­911/;“·;©x­ComputerAidedDispatch(CAD)databaseservesasthe <br />foundationofuseableemergencycallandresponsedataforanyandallemergencyserviceagencies, <br />andsystemmanagersandthebasisuponwhichtheybaseperformanceassessments,resource <br />deployment,staffing,andbudgetdecisions.Thedatamustbeeasilyaccessible,uptodate,user <br />(especiallyserviceagency)friendly,anditsaccuracy;i.e.reliability;assured. <br />ThiswasnotfoundtobethecaseinOrangeCounty.Why?Forone,theCADsystemcurrentlyinplace <br />wasoriginallypurchasedandinstalledin1992.Many{¦·-w;­|and{¦©·­|havereportedlybeen <br />addedsincethattime.Thefactremainsthatthetechnologyusedforcollectingandanalyzing <br />emergencyservicescallandincidentresponsedataandistwenty(20)yearsold! <br />WhileEmergencyServicesstafflaboredrepeatedlytoaccess,reformatifnecessary,interpretandmake <br />stogettotheinformationrequiredforthisstudy,theeffortsshouldnothave <br />countlessrunsofdatafield <br />hadtotakethetimeitdidhadthesystembeenevenmodestlyuptodate. <br />73 <br />SolutionsforLocalGovernment,Inc. <br /> <br />