Oh, It’s OK, “They’re Dead Anyway!”

By Billy Goldfeder, E.F.O.

We have said for years how important the role of the Fire Commuications Center and 9-1-1 are as far as the success of your agency. However, no matter how good your fire/rescue/EMS is, if the Dispatch Center is not a critical, high-priority part of the overall plan by “those in charge” (bosses, elected officials, etc.) to deliver service, you will soon discover your weakest link.

We know that dispatchers are not funded well in salary, training, and management. Quite typically, the dispatchers are asked to do lots with very little. Sometimes the public suffers; sometimes firefighters, cops, and EMTs suffer. But then again, if the people needing the help are dead anyway (see link and story at end of this column), it really isn’t a big deal, is it? Hmm.

Firefighters, EMS, and police continually have issues with their Communications Center. Sometimes it’s valid and sometimes it’s just whining. It is as if the Communications Center personnel are out to hurt the agencies they serve–and vice versa; and in some cases, that may be the case–indirectly. Why indirectly? Because, like any relationship, it takes “two to tango” and there are some significant factors that must be included in a relationship between a Comm Center and the fire departments they serve. The “indirectly” part is where the “leaders” on both sides of the relationship fail to make sure the relationship is always “worked on.”

It may be that the fire department has given up in trying to get the communications folks to “understand” what their needs are. In other cases, the same situation exists only in a different manner–whereas the dispatchers feel that the field personnel don’t understand what they have to go through.
Who’s right? Well, as Dr. Phil would say, “You are BOTH right and you are BOTH wrong!”

In most cases, it comes down to a few important items such as:

  • SALARY: Pay that allows the communications center to hire qualified people as dispatchers, who can actually live on their salary. You can’t be a “professional” and be alert, ready to serve, when you work two or three jobs to make ends meet.
  • TRAINING: Initial and ongoing training that continually focuses on the mission of the dispatch center. This training also includes those in the field having a full and “in-person” understanding of what the dispatchers have to do. Training applies to “both ends” of the radio. Dispatcher training must include the technical side but also issues such as customer service, phone relations, fire service and EMS basics, and operational understanding so that it is clear that the dispatcher is fully a part of the overall mission.
  • SUPERVISION: Ensure guidance, a “backup plan,” and system monitoring so nothing “falls through the cracks.” A dispatch supervisor must be alert and conscious at all times. Not unlike an air traffic controller, the supervisor IS responsible for anything that goes on. Tough job? Sure.
  • COMMUNICATION: This involves communication with the customers of the Communications Center to ensure their needs are met in delivering service to the public.
  • COORDINATION: Coordinate between the center and the customers so that “every agency that they dispatch for doesn’t have their own way” of doing things, which leads to the lack of standardization, which leads to errors.
  • PLANNING: Plan so that the Communications Center keeps up with the growth in the area of service.

This is just a sampling of numerous critical items that you must consider if you truly want to be able to count on your dispatch center to be as “good” as you agency considers itself to be. Running a regional communication center is a thankless, difficult, and tiring job with numerous barriers slowing down or stopping success. Succeed anyway, because clearly, the lives of those who dial 9-1-1 and those who respond to your dispatch are in your hands.

What would happen in your community? Could the incident described in the link below happen? Now’s the time to find out.

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradentonherald/2003/04/24/news/opinion/5702062.htm


Chief Billy Goldfeder is a battalion chief for the Loveland-Symmes (OH) Fire Department. Previously, he served as a chief in Ohio, Virginia, and Florida; an engineering/public protection representative covering southern New York for the ISO; and a lieutenant with the Manhasset-Lakeville (NY) Fire Department. A 1993 graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program, he is the former chairman of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Volunteer Section and has been an FDIC instructor for the past 22 years. He recently was appointed as an honorary battalion chief of the Fire Department of New York and is a member of the FDIC and Fire Engineering Advisory Boards.

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