By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
July 26, 2004
Police officers who dispatch ambulances in Greenwich are implementing procedures to better gauge the urgency of a patient's condition and provide instructions on emergency medical care before police and ambulances arrive.
The changes, mandated by the state, are intended to reduce the number of unnecessary high-speed squad car and ambulance responses for non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Using a binder of flip cards exhaustively covering symptoms, dispatchers now ask callers scripted questions to get information to determine how sick a patient is, said Sgt. Jeffrey Moran, of the police department's training division. Moran is overseeing adoption of the new system.
Based on the number and combination of symptoms a patient is suffering, the guidelines indicate whether a high-speed, lights-and-sirens response is warranted, Moran said.
Dispatchers began using the flip cards this year. A computerized version of the system will be added within two months, allowing the department to keep records of emergency calls to evaluate performance.
"It will be a great tool for reviewing the quality of our response," Moran said.
The town hired Priority Dispatch of Salt Lake City, Utah, to certify its 18 dispatchers in the new procedure during a three-day training session, Moran said. The state paid for the seminar, but the town paid each officer about $400 in overtime. The company is one of several vendors the state has approved to providetraining and materials under the new law.
The changes, required to be adopted by the state's 107 emergency dispatch centers by July 1, should mean greater safety for both ambulances and the motoring public, said George Pohorilak, director of the state Department of Safety Office of Statewide Emergency Telecommunications.
"The advantage of it is that you reduce the number of accidents that may occur as a result of lights and sirens responses," Pohorilak said.
Moran said the changes brought about by the new policy may be less dramatic in Greenwich than in other towns.Greenwich dispatchers are all certified emergency medical technicians and used that background to ask questions to prioritize response and give step-by-step life-saving instruction.
Now they will use the written instructions on the flip cards instead of relying on their EMT training.
Charlee Tufts, executive director of Greenwich Emergency Medical Service Inc., said town police dispatchers already categorized calls accurately, but the program should reduce the number of unwarranted emergency responses.
"This formalizes the process and adds a quality assurance to it," Tufts said. "I would emphasize our first desire is to make sure we can get to a life-threatening situation as rapidly as possible, but we also have an obligation to respond as safely as possible."
In 2003 GEMS responded to approximately 4,500 calls, 3,700 of which required medical transport, Tufts said. The average response time was 4.3 minutes.
"If all the statistics and experience that people have had across the United States are right, we will be responding more safely," Tufts said. "Lights and sirens are extremely important if you have a life-threatening emergency, but if you don't, this makes all the sense in the world."
Under the new system the scripted questions used by dispatchers to determine the condition of patients will make prioritizing the calls more uniform, Chief James Walters said.
"This just makes it a little simpler and cleaner in what our officers are telling callers," Walters said.
Walters is concerned about the cost and principle of being required by law to use one of a group of approved private vendors to recertify officers.
Recertifying the dispatchers in two years could cost $6,000 or more, Moran estimated.
Copyright © 2004, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.