The 911 Center in Roanoke will be rolling out new emergency medical dispatch protocols, moving to a more data-driven system.
“Our current system is much more individualized, experience-based,” 911 Center Training Coordinator Toby Akers said. “So, we wanted something that’s more evidence-based, data-driven.”
Dispatchers have done over 40 hours worth of training to get ready for the new EMD protocols.
“If one person calls for chest pain and somebody else calls for chest pain, they’re going to get the same high level of service that’s expected,” Akers said. “The responders are going to get more information about how to respond to the incidents and what equipment to send, things like that.”
When someone calls 911, they may be asked some different questions than before. Akers, however, says that these questions aren’t to delay the process, but to give dispatchers the right questions to send out the right responses.
“What I think sometimes people don’t realize is on critical incidents, as soon as we confirm the address and the phone number, we’re actually already sending responses out and able to do that,” Akers said. “So the questions aren’t really delaying the response. They’re just getting better information for our responders in the field.”
The updated protocols will be put in place on April 7.
A community meeting will be held on the 24th at Patrick Henry High School at 6 p.m., so people can ask their questions about the updated protocols.