Emergency dispatchers are being trained to help determine which 911 calls are more urgent, which officials say should help improve safety on local roads as rescuers respond to numerous calls each day.
With the assistance of the Emergency Communications Center, the county's Emergency Medical Services division is changing the way it prioritizes calls.
The county uses a system called EMD, for emergency medical dispatch. It has been in effect for approximately two years and added a higher level of precision when handling calls.
The difference will be that certified 911 call takers will be guided through a systematic series of questions to sort the information provided by the caller.
Once the priority of the call is determined, which takes only seconds, EMS officials said, the call will be electronically transferred to the telecommunicator who dispatches EMS.
There are five levels to the system beginning with Alpha, a non-emergency response for a low-level event such as general weakness, up through Echo, an emergency response from both EMS and firefighters for a patient in cardiac arrest.
Until now, EMS Chief Mark Edenfield said, EMS has responded in emergency status to all calls, regardless of the urgency.
Although all EMTs and paramedics employed with Manatee County are certified in emergency vehicle operations, Edenfield said, each emergency response increases the chances of an accident.
EMS vehicles occasionally have to move at speeds above the posted limit and are sometimes forced to undertake maneuvers contrary to safe vehicle operation - such as running through red lights and intersections, facing traffic in oncoming lanes and passing in no-passing zones.
The last major accident involving department staff, Edenfield said, was approximately two months ago and the one before that was six years ago. Neither was the fault of EMS, and Edenfield would like to keep it that way.
"We need to make certain our organization is on the cutting edge of technology and compliant with standards throughout the country," Edenfield said. "If the condition of the patient has been determined by the certified 911 call taker to be non-emergent in nature, we need to take that information and respond to the call in the appropriate manner."
The county started working on the system two years ago, Edenfield said, using grant money EMS had to send the first round of call takers through training. Since that time, the 911 center has upgraded from a manual system and purchased software for the computer-aided dispatch system, which places the questions to be asked on the computer screen in sequential order according to the caller's responses.
EMS will transition into the system slowly, Edenfield said, stressing that if at any time there is a question as to the urgency of the call, it will be upgraded to the next level. One of the system's principles is to expect the call to be an emergency until proven otherwise.
Call takers become certified through the National Academy of Emergency Medical Dispatch, having spent hundreds of hours in a comprehensive orientation program before operating on their own, Edenfield said. Each call taker's performance is measured in six areas, and they are reviewed monthly, Edenfield said.
Emergency Communications Center Chief Bill Hutchison said it will be a different process for the call takers, but the major impact would be on EMS personnel.
"It just adds a little extra process to what we do everyday," Hutchison said.
But county officials are willing to take on the extra work to enact the priority dispatching and its modern, protocol-driven system of EMS response control.
"As always, we are here to serve our customers," Edenfield said. "We are always looking at different ways to increase the level of care we provide to the citizens and visitors of Manatee County. This system will provide us with the tools to do so."
