page_title: Emergency medical dispatcher
section_title: Role
hierarchical_section_title: Emergency medical dispatcher / Role
caption_attribution_description: Emergency dispatch center (emergency response center) in Kerava, Finland
context_page_description: An emergency medical dispatcher is a professional telecommunicator, tasked with the gathering of information related to medical emergencies, the provision of assistance and instructions by voice, prior to the arrival of emergency medical services, and the dispatching and support of EMS resources responding to an emergency call. The term "emergency medical dispatcher" is also a certification level and a professional designation, certified through the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International and the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. Many dispatchers, whether certified or not, will dispatch using a standard emergency medical dispatch protocol.
context_section_description: In most modern EMS systems, the emergency medical dispatcher (EMD) will fill a number of critical functions.  The first of these is the identification of basic call information, including the location and telephone number of the caller, the location of the patient, the general nature of the problem, and any special circumstances. In most EMS systems, the telephone remains almost a singular point of access for those needing assistance.
  There are general exceptions to this rule. Most of them still involve 9-1-1 calls, but using new alerting mechanisms upstream from the 9-1-1 call. While these new applications are not directly monitored by the EMD, the EMD nevertheless remains the primary point of contact into the dispatch system. The three most common new applications are:
  Some public access defibrillators, upon removal, have an alarm built in that triggers an automated 9-1-1 call on the assumption that an AED is being removed for emergency medical reasons.  Maintenance removal utilizes an alarm override.
  Personal safety alarms, designed for use by the elderly or infirm, such as Philips LifeLine.  They usually take the form of a bracelet or pendant. The device will have a push-button-activated alarm, and possibly a motion sensor for automatic alarms, which are relayed through a base unit attached to a telephone landline.  Most such systems inform a monitoring company, which follow protocol for informing 9-1-1 about the potential emergency of the subscriber. Sophisticated versions of these systems may even allow two-way voice communication among the subscriber, the monitoring company, and emergency dispatch.
  Vehicle monitoring systems (such as GM OnStar).  Such systems have sensors to monitor for vehicle crashes, mobile or satellite telephony to call the monitoring company, and GPS to identify the vehicle's location.  In the event that the system detects a possible crash situation, the system will call the monitoring center and submit the crash and location information. If the operator cannot verify with the car's occupants that emergency services are unnecessary, then the operator will call the PSAP appropriate to the vehicle's location.  This is becoming increasingly common in North America.
  The next area of responsibility involves the triage of incoming calls, providing expert systematized caller interrogation, using the script provided by the Emergency Medical Dispatch system, in order to determine the likely severity of the patient's illness or injury, so that the most appropriate type of response resource may be expedited.  All calls are prioritized by medical symptom/condition acuity.  This process may be further complicated by panic-stricken callers who scream, cry, or make unreasonable demands.  The trained EMD uses interpersonal and crisis management skills to sort through these distractions, taking control of the conversation, calming the caller, and extracting the necessary information.  This inquiry begins with the obvious questions regarding whether the patient is conscious or breathing.  The questioning will continue until the EMD is able to qualify a potentially life-threatening condition, at which time the closest appropriate response resource (such as a paramedic-staffed ambulance service) is notified to initiate pinpointing the call location.  When this occurs, the EMD will continue the questioning, attempting to gather additional relevant information, useful to determine response speed, the type of resources dispatched, or the type of equipment that the paramedics will bring to the site when they arrive.  In most cases, this 'pre-alert' function will not be required, and the resource will simply be dispatched when all of the required information has been gathered.  Ultimately, the decision on how to proceed, or when to interrupt the established process, requires the judgment of the EMD handling the call.  Otherwise, the manner in which this questioning proceeds is often governed by protocols, or by decision-support software.
  The third function is the selection and assignment of the most appropriate type 
caption: Emergency dispatch center in Finland
exif: {}