Just Call 911 – A Novel Idea
Now here’s a novel idea. I wish I was being sarcastic but I’m not. Personally I think someone should have tried this a long time ago. In Minnesota, the local dispatch center ha decided to tell people to just call 911 any time they think they need a police man, a fireman or an ambulance. They’ve dropped the whole idea of asking people to only call for emergencies and to find a non-emergent number somewhere if they have a non-emergent need.
Apparently they started routing all the calls into the same center some time ago and now they’ve just decided to screen the calls themselves. I suspect they were doing that already. If a caller called on the non-emergent line with chest pain I suspect they got routed over to the emergent side. If a called needed non-emergent service, I suspect they received them even if they called the emergency line.
So now, instead of investing countless dollars in ineffective public education programs and getting upset when people still call on the wrong line, this center is going to stop swimming upstream and just tell folks, “hey, call us and well figure it out.” You might even say they’re going to let the patient define the emergency. Revolutionary.
This runs counter to everything we’ve been trying to do with 911 dispatch for over 20 years and I commend Minnesota for being bold enough to try it. Way to think for yourselves guys.
Steve
Tags: 911, dispatch, emergency, minnesota, non-emergent
As a person who works in a 911 center, I can honestly say this might work in theory. however, you need to have the staffing to handle the call volume. if you only have 10 people to answer phones, what happens when that 11th caller rings? and if those 10 calls are for non-emergencies, and the 11th call (the one that hasn’t been answered) is for a chest pain, or resp emergencies, or a gsw victim, then what? now you have all your operators tied up, and a delayed response to the emergencies, one you don’t even know yoiu have.
having a non-emergency call center allows the non-emergency calls to wait, while the emergency calls get answered. (potential) life threats get a rapid response, while non emergencies get answered when an operator is available. combining everything into one center, without providing enough resources to handle the volume is a process that is destined to end in disaster
That’s…actually quite brilliant. Wow.