![]() ![]() Dale downplays the conflict of interest.ĭALE: I think that the academy and Priority Dispatch both have done a lot of good in the communities that we work in. ![]() To get accredited, agencies have to use ProQA. He's also the founder of the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch, the agency that sets national standards and accredits 911 agencies. Priority Dispatch president Brian Dale explains the problem this way.īRIAN DALE: When agencies first implement, there is usually a slight delay until the dispatchers feel more and more comfortable working with the system and working with the software. The problems are so common, Priority Dispatch has an entire webpage devoted to debunking what the company calls myths about the system. Minneapolis abandoned the system in 2019, citing slower call times. And in Pennsylvania that same year, dispatchers told local media the software was going to get someone killed. The parent company was sued in 2019 after dispatchers in Salt Lake City failed to send help to an assault in progress. LEVINSON: Pueblo and Portland are among the 3,700 911 agencies using ProQA, according to Priority Dispatch, the company that sells the software. ![]() HUBER: We're trying to find ways of expediting that dispatch time. LEVINSON: Barbara Huber is the fire chief in Pueblo, Colo., and she says their times increased by about a minute and a half after adopting ProQA. Dispatchers wrote they were ignored after they pleaded with management not to implement the protocols over the summer, when call volume typically spikes. And all of us here actually working the floor gasp every time," end quote. Instead, some skewed numbers about staffing and call times are thrown out. One dispatcher wrote anonymously to an elected official, quote, "what is really happening is not shown or spoken of. ![]() LEVINSON: But dispatchers say the regimented questions make each call last a little longer, and that extra time adds up. LEVINSON: Cozzie says the delays are due to a massive increase in call volume and short-staffing.ĬOZZIE: For us to have been able to meet that challenge, we would have had to see that call volume coming about two years earlier because of how long it takes our trainees to get through the process. LEVINSON: Bob Cozzie is director of Portland's Bureau of Emergency Communications.ĬOZZIE: What ProQA does is helps us define exactly what type of response needs to go to a particular call type. And nine months in, those numbers have increased even more before.īOB COZZIE: Before ProQA, they would just be responding with lights and sirens on everything. In the month after ProQA launched in Portland, the number of people who waited five minutes or more for a 911 dispatcher to answer their call shot up almost 500% compared to the month before. Last year, after Portland transitioned to the new software to triage medical and fire calls, hold times surged. Those questions are supposed to help a dispatcher determine how urgent a call is and how to respond. LEVINSON: ProQA is software that prompts a series of standardized questions, where each answer determines the next step in the dispatching process. GORE: That was a super typical, run-of-the-mill ProQA call. LEVINSON: One minute and 45 seconds elapses before an ambulance is sent to the woman's house. GORE: Are you clammy or having cold sweats? LEVINSON: After 40 seconds taking the caller's basic information, a screen pops up prompting additional questions. I'm just going to have some questions for you. JONATHAN LEVINSON, BYLINE: On an unusually slow day at Portland's 911 call center, Kristina Gore takes a call from a woman in respiratory distress. Here's Jonathan Levinson of Oregon Public Broadcasting. The wait time increased after the city adopted new dispatch software. It is taking longer to get through to 911 in Portland, Ore. ![]()
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