Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) refers to a system that enhances services provided by

Public Safety Answering Point A public-safety answering point (PSAP), sometimes called public-safety access point, is a call center where emergency/non-emergency calls (like police, fire brigade, ambulance) initiated by any mobile or landline subscriber are terminated. It can ...

(emergency) call takers, such as municipal emergency services dispatchers. It does so by allowing the call taker to quickly narrow down the caller's type of medical or trauma situation, so as to better dispatch emergency services, and provide quality instruction to the caller before help arrives.

Overview

Based on specific question-and-answer logic trees ("systematized interrogation"), the dispatcher is able to determine a problem type and priority for the call, and use that information to * provide systematized Pre-Arrival Instructions, including **Dispatch Life Support (DLS), which gives phone instruction to aid the patient until help arrives ** provide other information to the caller * activate appropriate protocols ** dispatch the call to the appropriate resources ** dispatch using the appropriate modes (emergency mode or normal driving) ** activation of secondary protocols, such as notifications

Implementation

Many countries have a national EMD or DLS program, sometimes with a designated system provider, either mandatory or optional. Others may have a national curriculum or accreditation program, or the program may be designated by local jurisdictions at the state or province level. Not all jurisdictions have any sanctioned EMD or DLS system in place, and not all emergency call centers have EMD or DLS. There is some controversy over using these systems, especially when non-medical staff man the phones. EMD may be guided by computer software, or flashcard-books (often color-coded, with page cross references to help further narrow down the phone diagnosis and/or treatment, and dispatch protocol). Such manual systems have been likened to recipe cards. The dispatch effort guided by EMD may indicate call severity, resource type (

basic life support Basic life support (BLS) is a level of medical care which is used for patients with life-threatening illnesses or injuries until they can be given full medical care by advanced life support providers (paramedics, nurses, physicians). It can be pr ...

paramedics A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

), declaration of a

multiple casualty incident Multiple may refer to: Economics *Multiple finance, a method used to analyze stock prices *Multiples of the price-to-earnings ratio *Chain stores, are also referred to as 'Multiples' * Box office multiple, the ratio of a film's total gross to th ...

(MCI), responder emergency mode (e.g., permission to use lights and sirens), call priority, and hospital or health department notification. The on-phone instruction effort guided by EMD may help the caller or other bystander to perform

CPR Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is an emergency procedure consisting of chest compressions often combined with artificial ventilation in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function until further measures are taken to restore sponta ...

or other lay basic life support, provide instruction on how to aid the responders to reach the patient, evacuation instructions, or other forms of care or safety instruction.

Adopted programs

In the United States, the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS), Criterion-Based Dispatch, and

Computer aided call handling Computer aided call handling is a methodology for managing calls to service providers, such as emergency services, through the use of computer based algorithms in order to make consistent and objective decisions on action to be taken. The computer ...

(CACH) are common protocols. In the United Kingdom, AMPDS is one of two Department of Health and Social Care approved computer programs for 999/112 medical emergency call triage; used across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and parts of England. In England,

NHS Pathways NHS Pathways is a triage software utilised by the National Health Service of England to triage public telephone calls for medical care and emergency medical services – such as 999 or 111 calls – in some NHS trusts and five of the ambulance se ...

is the alternative system and it is used by five of the eleven regional ambulance services.

References

{{reflist , refs= {{cite web , url=http://www.naemsp.org/documents/EmergencyMedicalDispatching.pdf , title=Emergency Medical Dispatching , publisher=National Association of Emergency Medical System Physicians , access-date=2010-09-06 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080512054813/http://www.naemsp.org/documents/EmergencyMedicalDispatching.pdf , archive-date=2008-05-12 , url-status=dead {{cite web , url=http://www.skyaid.org/Skyaid+Org/Medical/EMS_Dispatch.htm , author=Caughron, Chele , title=Priority System relays emergency instructions before ambulance arrives , publisher=Sun-Sentinel; Fort Lauderdale, Florida , access-date=2010-09-05 , archive-date=2002-02-11 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020211033538/http://www.prioritydispatch.net/medical/articles/prioritysystem1.htm , url-status=dead {{cite web , author=Petricca, Michael G , title=The Politics of Emergency Medical Dispatch , publisher=NENANEWS (National Emergency Number Association News/The 9-1-1 Association) , archive-date=2002-02-08 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020208160428/http://www.prioritydispatch.net/medical/articles/politics1.htm , url=http://www.prioritydispatch.net/medical/articles/politics1.htm , access-date=2010-09-05 , url-status=dead {{cite journal , url=http://www.annemergmed.com/article/S0196-0644%2854%2900223-5/abstract , title=Increasing the efficiency of emergency medical services by using criteria based dispatch , pmid=7978559 , doi= 10.1016/S0196-0644(54)00223-5 , year=1994 , last1=Culley , first1=Linda L. , last2=Henwood , first2=Daniel K. , last3=Clark , first3=Jill J. , last4=Eisenberg , first4=Mickey S. , last5=Horton , first5=Christy , journal=Annals of Emergency Medicine , volume=24 , issue=5 , pages=867–872 Telephone services Emergency communication Emergency medicine