Durham EMS Making Changes to Save Time & Lives

Investigative Reporter Stuart Watson found Durham wants dispatchers toask the right questions up front to save time and lives.

Like the boy who cried wolf, Durham EMS managers find they use lights andsirens to rush to some emergencies that aren't emergencies.

Durham is training dispatchers to ask the right questions to send the rightequipment.But it'll cost taxpayers more to make the system work.

In a real emergency we want an ambulance fast.But all too often Durham EMS is finding there's not a real emergency waitingfor them.And an East Carolina University study seems to show lights and sirens maynot be worth the risk.

Durham EMS Medical Director, Dr. Rich Serra, says "we'd rather beproactive and avoid a situation ever occurring and you knowthere might be a fatality that could have otherwise been avoided."

Using lights and sirens less. It seems to run counter to the whole thrustof emergency medicine: seconds count.

Chuck Johnson, Durham's Emergency Communications Director says everyseconddoescount. "Seconds can turn into minutes if ambulancesare involved in accidents."

To make sure they're responding to a real emergency, managers want dispatchersto spend more time on the phone asking carefully scripted questions.

Over the last two years, Durham has spent about 10,000 dollars trainingdispatchers on a system called Emergency Medical Priority Dispatch.But Durham has yet to put the system into practice, because it takes moredispatchers to field calls while others askquestions.

Durham's 911 center is asking for 12 more dispatchers to put the EmergencyDispatch system on line early next year.

Emergency Medical Priority Dispatch has other advantages.Dispatchers can coach callers on CPR. Right now, they can't.And managers hope to free up ambulances to get to real emergencies faster.

There's yet another very important advantage.With Emergency Medical Dispatch, dispatchers can send ambulances wherethey're needed most.Right now ambulances are first-come first- serve.They might be sent on a non-emergency while dispatchers call an ambulancefrom farther away to respond to a real emergency.