Edmonton EMS Dispatch Changes

[VE6USA]

On March 22nd @ 0300hrs all 911 calls will be sent to AHSCCC (AHS Central Communications Centre) for all EMS requests in the City of Edmonton.

Event Notification
The automatic voice dispatch is not part of the new EMS dispatch system. EMS staff will
be notified of an event in the following manner:

On Air
• Verbal notification by the Metro Dispatcher on DISP 1
• Event information on the unit pager
• via MDT

In Station
• Verbal notification by the Metro Dispatcher on DISP 1
• Unit Pager

Pre- Alert
• Starting March 22nd a pre-alert page will be sent to the unit selected to respond to
the event. Crews will receive a page with an event type of 00A01. This indicates
a pre-alerted to an event.
• Event and call information will be available on the unit MDT as soon as the event
determinate is entered by the call evaluator.

Radio Communication- AHS Central Communications Centre
• When contacting the communications on the radio verbalize Central
Communications or Central Comms. E.g. - “Central Comms” this is 1A1”

Radio Communication- Channel Allocation
DISP1- all units when not assigned to an event will monitor DISP 1
• Event notification
• Area assignment

DISP2- all units assigned to an event will monitor DISP 2
• Event Safety related information
• Verbal updates if required
• Request extra resources

Update 1-5
• All joint responses with Edmonton Fire will be assigned an update channel.
• The update channel is to be used to communicate directly with the responding

Edmonton Fire resource and is unmonitored by CCC.
• If an EMS unit needs other resources the request must be made on DISP2

Hospital Update
• Hospital Destination

SGH (change)
• Used when responding outside of Edmonton to talk directly with Strathcona
Dispatch (currently use DISP2)

 

[EdmontonFireRadio]

Great update, Thanks for posting the info.

 

[SCPD]

I just hope that AHS knows what they are getting into ... as something as critical as EMS dispatching is not something that they can get wrong. But from what I understand they have been having practice sessions for several weeks.

Thanks for the information .... it will help us that will be listening decipher what is going on.

 

[robertmac]

Bite my tongue. I just do not understand the spending of money for this with the new Radio System being banter around. Is it really something that has to be done now? Has there been major problems with dispatch systems up to now? This is Edmonton, what is happening with AHS dispatch in the rest of the province?

 

[omrail]

So it is 3:07 and CCC just got on the radio. So far every one is downtown and are just now being told were to go by CCC.

3:12 - Or maybe just one or two units. Now CCC is not saying a thing.

First call went out at 3:21ish. Sounded like it worked but I did miss some of the info. Sounds like Edmonton dispatch was giving the ems unit the correct info at the same time as the pump on an update 3.

 

[omrail]

So as of know it sounds like it is a good thing that it is 3 in the morning. The one call sounded like it was for the most part all good. But crews are having to call two plus times before CCC gets back to them. The gps have the units all over the place but not the right place. I have no clue if that is the CCC system of what. All units when free from calls before 3 have to log off and login to the AHS cad and it is not the same as the Edmonton system.

I am off to bed.

 

[EdmontonFireRadio]

The transition was interesting, that's for sure. Omrail, I was listening as well and to my surprise, even though there was a lot of confusion it didn't seem to go as badly as I thought that it would. I guess we will see how it goes later today once the medical calls start coming in.

 

[harryshute]

I agree it could have gone a lot worse. I heard VE6USA do his final sign on with the EFR dispatchers. There were quite a few tearful good byes. Lots of wishes of good luck from ERD to AHS. The AHS units would reply with "they key word is luck".

I didn't expect to listen but woke at at 2:10 hrs and listened in. They are back now to using the station numbers now rather than the same so a bit of confusion.

The line up so far today is AHS Console 1178 on Dispatch 1, Console 1179 on Dispatch 2, and Console 1180 on EMS Info. Console 1182 is handling Deployment with Strathcona Dispatch Console 1172 is on SGH for out of Edmonton trips.

What are they doing in the rest of Alberta. The scew ups are covered up by the unmonitorable IDEN Telus Mike system that is being used for dispatch. This is not the fault of the new radio system but that gradual take-over by the province from minicipalities of ambulance service.

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.57 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/109)

This is some what the same, but different, as BC the majority of the province is Vhf convetional (AB iDEN), lower mainland is PV-EDACS (Edmonton EDACS) and capital region is motorola typeII SZ (Calgary) it seems to work in BC and after the kinks are worked out it should be better for Albertans. I think the biggest problem faced by AHS is incompetence at the political level. Look at the sheer size of area that the kamloops BCAS dispatch center handles.

Yes MiKE cannot be monitored, but what other system has the capacity and coverage to accommodate ambulances coming from many different areas if they are operating on a local system and have respond to a call out side their local repeater coverage, say from Parkland County(Uhf) and going to Wildwood(Vhf-MPT system? Until AFRRCS is fully on line MiKE is a logical choice

 

[beeperboy]

I think the biggest problem faced by AHS is incompetence at the political level.

You got that partially correct. I used to work for AHS, and it is plagued by overwhelming, bungling, and negligently disgraceful incompetence at all levels.

BB

 

[kayn1n32008]

...Look at the sheer size of area that the Kamloops BCAS dispatch center handles.

I ment to add here, the land area that the Kamloops dispatch center covers is HUGE and they seem to be able to effectively dispatch ambulance service to patients that are hundreds of kilometres from where the 911 call is processed.

IF all ambulance services had been on VHF through out the province then I could see not moving to MiKE, just program all radios with all repeater pairs, except this is not realistic due to 3 bands (Vhf, Uhf, 800Mhz) and at least 5 different modes (Type II SZ, EDACS, MiKE, MPT-1327, Conventional)


@BeeperBoy: It is unfortunate that the political, and managerial incompantence cannot be unloaded into the nearest trash bin. It is too bad the golden pensions will reward the stupidity.

 

[SCPD]

So as of know it sounds like it is a good thing that it is 3 in the morning. The one call sounded like it was for the most part all good. But crews are having to call two plus times before CCC gets back to them. The gps have the units all over the place but not the right place. I have no clue if that is the CCC system of what. All units when free from calls before 3 have to log off and login to the AHS cad and it is not the same as the Edmonton system.

I am off to bed.

Oh boy, this a mess, just a sample from this evening In a 45 minute period:

- Dispatched a cardiac arrest as chest pains
- Dispatched one ambulance and PRU unit directly to an address that should of been a staged event (Home invasion)
- Dispatched a unit from the deep west to North west with several units much closer, took dispatch 5 minutes to answer the responding unit, "are you sure were the closet unit"
- 12 calls and 18 units on one dispatch channel, dispatcher getting units mixed up

Someone could die if this keeps up

 

[robertmac]

VHF antennas

I see AHS EMS units in Calgary still have VHF antennas. Haven't done any scanning out side my usual loaded frequencies so can't say they are being used on VHF. 153.800 has been dead in Calgary since last year. Kind of scarry with this centralized dispatch when either the people calling or people answering have no idea where the motor vehicle collision is. With the icy roads yesterday morning, they were dispatching fire and EMS all over Calgary trying to find a roll over. I really feel every cell phone should have GPS when 911 is called.

 

[omrail]

Oh boy, this a mess, just a sample from this evening In a 45 minute period:

- Dispatched a cardiac arrest as chest pains
- Dispatched one ambulance and PRU unit directly to an address that should of been a staged event (Home invasion)
- Dispatched a unit from the deep west to North west with several units much closer, took dispatch 5 minutes to answer the responding unit, "are you sure were the closet unit"
- 12 calls and 18 units on one dispatch channel, dispatcher getting units mixed up

Someone could die if this keeps up

I know it would be bad with all the calls on one channel. Last night it was taking some units going to info to find out were to go, As no one would talk to them. The gps last night was all over the Place.

That 45 min is something I think a lot of the ems crews and use were thinking would happen.