19 January 2012

In mid-December, 2011, when a 77 year old Douglas County resident collapsed at his home, a new emergency medical dispatch system was activated. The Douglas County public safety dispatcher assisted the 911 caller with CPR instructions, the precise emergency medical equipment and personnel were sent to the home, and the patient was safely delivered to the hospital with a pulse and breathing.

The new Emergency Medical Dispatch system is the result of a cooperative effort between the Douglas County 911 Emergency Services Department and local fire and EMS agencies to implement the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch medical priority protocols.

The protocols ensure that every 911 emergency call is handled in the most efficient, effective and consistent manner possible. Most importantly, the new protocols allow the emergency dispatcher to provide life saving, pre-arrival instructions to the caller, ranging from CPR to child birth.

Upon answering a 911 call, the dispatcher asks a series of questions and based on the information received, the program identifiesappropriate instructions, and determines the response mode for thatparticular incident, thereby increasing the precision and quality of response, as well as reducing the risk of an accident during the response.

The result is a “zero-minute response time” that makes the emergency dispatcher the first responder and the hub of the emergency medical system (EMS) circle of care. The EMS circle of care goes beyond dispatch and the fire service, and includes the patient, the citizen bystander and law enforcement officers

For the most critical calls, such as acardiac arrest, the closest EMS equipment is dispatched along with the closest law enforcement officer with an Automatic External Defibrillator. It is important to know that if you or someone you care about is in need of emergency medical attention, professionally trained and equipped emergency dispatch, fire, EMS and law enforcement personnel stand ready to help.

For more information please visit http://www.douglascountynv.gov or call 775-782-6290.