Incidents that result in death, especially ones where young lives are cut short, are regrettable, but sadly, they are a fact of our society. The event in Seattle is the focus of attention more because of the dramatic explosion and fire assumed to have been created by a father fighting a custody battle, than the actual outcome. However, the attention has brought scrutiny on the conduct of the dispatcher who received the 9-1-1 call from the social worker supervising the children’s visit with their father.

Hopefully, an investigation into this incident will be subjective and broad enough to consider more than just the dialogue between the social worker and dispatcher. Josh Powell’s wife had been missing for some time, his children were subjects of a custody battle, was this murder-suicide an accident just waiting to happen one way or another?

An article in The Salt Lake Tribune quotes an expert from a Utah-based company that supplies dispatch protocols and training who states, “From our point of view, that call went on way too long and gathered very little as far as actionable information goes.” It is ironic that similar comments have often been made by other dispatchers and PSAP managers regarding the consequences of adopting the system his company supplies!

There might actually be a more deeply rooted issue at stake here as the approach used to handle this call at this center was not an isolated event. A training supervisor from the agency that manages the PSAP was quoted in The Olympian as suggesting that the abrupt, impatient tone of the dispatcher highlighted by listeners of the 9-1-1 call is the way they are supposed to sound: “What we look for is people who have a slight Type-A personality…They need to take control of the conversation. We don’t want them to be wishy-washy.”

Is it possible that the agency has lost its focus regarding the role of the dispatcher when handling emergency calls? Protocols or structured questioning used during calls will not alone prevent events like this from happening. There is an endemic problem across the entire 9-1-1 industry in maintaining an effective and credible QA culture that learns from each and every event or call. Buying third party systems to do this will not ensure results unless there is a committed desire from every level within an agency for the program to succeed. For that to happen, the commitment needs to be as fundamental as accepting that when a phone rings, you answer it. QA is not a luxury nor a nicety (“something we’ll get around to when we have time”) nor something that has to be done because legislation decrees it. The mindset of ongoing QA should come BEFORE the protocols, BEFORE the training, BEFORE the call is answered. Complacency is the greatest hazard 9-1-1 dispatchers face. In the midst of countless silent calls, malicious calls, hysterical callers, confused callers, aggressive callers and routine calls, there will be that one that has the potential to ignite a firestorm of public interest. Training will help dampen those flames, as will structured questions to guide the dispatcher. But behind this, the culture within every agency has to continually and proactively question their actions and performance at every level. When you QA a call, what happens to the information the process provides? QA isn’t an extra step that has to be resourced and adopted separately to everyday operations; it has to be acknowledged as, “It’s what we do.”

This statement could easily be interpreted as a criticism of dispatchers when the true focus of attention needs to be upon the decision makers who oversee PSAPs around the country. The expectation to be offered CPR instructions in an emergency situation should be as fundamental as the expectation a telephone call to 9-1-1 will be answered. Sadly, there are still agencies who have not implemented procedures to make this type of advice available. There are also many agencies that having provided the capability, do nothing to ensure it is actually used consistently when needed!

Every primary PSAP (the ones receiving calls direct from the public) should have the capability to offer CPR advice to a consistent standard. There should be no question regarding its availability, or whether dispatchers consistently reference the guidelines provided in them. Their agency should, as a matter of routine, have processes in place that monitor the ongoing performance of the PSAP at different levels. Instead there are still too many communication center managers who continue to view pre-arrival instructions as an impediment to a dispatcher’s ability to manage radio traffic or other calls.

The protocol for how and when to offer CPR advice to emergency callers is well documented and established. Every dispatch operator trained and certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch covers the topic in their initial certification and on-going refresher training. Where things fail is within PSAPs who do not recognize that training and protocols alone do not ensure expected levels of service are or can be met.

As you well know, we can not always believe what we`read. Unfortunately the media will place their twist to make the headlines more enticing to the reader. As you stated, the dispatcher remained calm and composed under intense pressure. Our dispatcher’s and call takers do not get the luxury of calling a timeout or taking a recess to think about their decisions and actions. PowerPhone trainers have been discussing this very issue in our classes for years. When faced with these situations, call takers must act and provide pre-arrival instructions to distraught callers. When an emergency strikes many callers lose their sense of what to do and turn to the call taker for what is often life saving direction.

Appropriately the call taker specifically stated that she could not give permission or specific instruction to use deadly force. Instead she inquired as to locked doors (pre-arrival survival instruction), which is clearly the barricade option. She further put it back to the caller advising her that the option of deadly force was up to the caller if she felt it was the only option to protect her life and her infant child. The call taker also did not panic and did not out of fear order the caller to put the gun down and get away from it. She properly did not take away the caller’s most viable option. If she had, perhaps this story would have had a far more tragic ending.

Website: http://www.nonines.org

Clearly the disabled use 9-1-1.