"Command Channel" for EMS Operations

[Tigger]

I'm looking for feedback to improve countywide operations where I work. Currently the county is covered by two services, one to the north and one to the south. We do a lot of mutual aid with one another as the north service staffs three ambulances and the south two for a total of 560 square miles with transport times ranging from 35 minutes to two hours.

The county is well covered by a digital VHF radio system (MotoTRBO) with multiple repeater sites. One service uses this system exclusively on a channel known as EMS North. All dispatch and operations use occurs on this channel. The other uses an analog channel available in the town that they are based in and an EMS South digital channel for everything else (much of their area is not in range of the analog channel). All digital channels (both North and South) are available countywide as a result of properly placed repeaters.

Despite frequent mutual aid responses, we are not well coordinated. There are three dispatch centers in the county and none of them seem to care about mutual aid issues. As a result I would like to institute a countywide operations channel for both services to use. Each service would receive dispatches on their own channel, but from going enroute and on all radio traffic would occur on one channel, regardless of agency. When you clear the hospital or incident, you flip the truck radio back over to the dispatch channel.

Does anyone else work in a system like this? Pros and cons?

Originally I wanted one single channel for all EMS communications countywide. This has been vetoed as we do not have station alerting, just a radio plugged into a PA system in the station. Crews don't want to listen other agencies get dispatched in the middle of the night, which while possibly petty, has definitely killed that plan.

My hope is that this way the crews would be aware of what resources are available and where they are coming from. This would also hopefully aid multiple-agency responses as not all dispatch centers have all channels available. If I respond mutual aid and go to the south agency's channel, there is no guarantee my dispatch will be able to monitor that channel. Our dispatch centers often only have one dispatcher/call-taker for police/fire/EMS so it's not likely that they can keep track. We don't have CAD, and there isn't the money to get it, nor is there any push for a regional dispatch center.

 

[avdrummerboy]

Some of our fire system around here used one channel as dispatch and one for command/ response, it is not unheard of or hard to do no. You can't tone out individual radios with motoTRBO? That's how we do it at my service, we have a separate dispatch in our station and it's an individual radio page. Other than that you have described a system that works with what you've got, two dispatch channels for the two 'services' and one command/ response channel. Also, why don't the dispatch centers have all channels available to them? If one or two go down, and another is now going to be the main center for the area, they're gonna want to be able to talk on those channels.

 

[Tigger]

In theory they all have them available. There are two city PD dispatches and one county sheriff's office dispatch. The southern agency is only dispatched by their city's PD and only on the analog channel. You can talk to that dispatch on the south channel but not the north channel. The other two dispatch centers are not in range of the analog channel. Only the county dispatch listens to North and South, the other PD dispatch only listens to North.

It's terrible.

I was not aware you could page individual radios for dispatch. That might be worth pursuing.

 

[avdrummerboy]

We use a motorola trunking system and yeah you can page individual radios from any radio, it works for us so we don't have to have a station radio blaring all night. Our company is trying to get away from it due to subscriber costs, but the new ones will still tone out individual radios.

I assume that all motorola setups can do it, most commercial radios have the ability to page one another.

 

[socalmedic]

all mototurbo radios can page on the digital channels, they can also text message each other and private call. we use one dispatch channel for the county with fire and ems (about 150 units) you can silence the radio until you are paged which is great at night because you dont hear anything until you are called. then we switch to a command channel for the duration of the call, there are two commands for the county (east and west). we also have 5 TAC channels for large incidents or fires so that our command channels dont get filled up with chatter.

 

[exodus]

That's how cal-fire's system is. Each division has their own dispatch channel. RRU1, RRU2, RRU3, etc. And then each batallion within that has their own command channel. RVC CMND 9, RVC CMND 10, RC CMND 12. And then from within there they have tactical channels that must be enabled through the fire's dispatch center to use for extended events or scenes, there are 12 of those. These channels are the for the 911 responders only, but in large scale events we also have an multi-agency channel that can be used by any emergency responsder (PD, EMS, BLS-EMS, Fire). This channel is called Calcord.

 

[Christopher]

I'm looking for feedback to improve countywide operations where I work. Currently the county is covered by two services, one to the north and one to the south. We do a lot of mutual aid with one another as the north service staffs three ambulances and the south two for a total of 560 square miles with transport times ranging from 35 minutes to two hours.

The county is well covered by a digital VHF radio system (MotoTRBO) with multiple repeater sites. One service uses this system exclusively on a channel known as EMS North. All dispatch and operations use occurs on this channel. The other uses an analog channel available in the town that they are based in and an EMS South digital channel for everything else (much of their area is not in range of the analog channel). All digital channels (both North and South) are available countywide as a result of properly placed repeaters.

Despite frequent mutual aid responses, we are not well coordinated. There are three dispatch centers in the county and none of them seem to care about mutual aid issues. As a result I would like to institute a countywide operations channel for both services to use. Each service would receive dispatches on their own channel, but from going enroute and on all radio traffic would occur on one channel, regardless of agency. When you clear the hospital or incident, you flip the truck radio back over to the dispatch channel.

Does anyone else work in a system like this? Pros and cons?

Originally I wanted one single channel for all EMS communications countywide. This has been vetoed as we do not have station alerting, just a radio plugged into a PA system in the station. Crews don't want to listen other agencies get dispatched in the middle of the night, which while possibly petty, has definitely killed that plan.

My hope is that this way the crews would be aware of what resources are available and where they are coming from. This would also hopefully aid multiple-agency responses as not all dispatch centers have all channels available. If I respond mutual aid and go to the south agency's channel, there is no guarantee my dispatch will be able to monitor that channel. Our dispatch centers often only have one dispatcher/call-taker for police/fire/EMS so it's not likely that they can keep track. We don't have CAD, and there isn't the money to get it, nor is there any push for a regional dispatch center.

County A: If we respond with another agency we are assigned a separate radio channel for our incident. Depending on the nature of the call it may be monitored by dispatchers.

County B: EMS/Fire are split by main dispatch, but we're moving to a model where we respond on the same channel for certain types of calls. EMS calls are handled on the EMS channel, whether you're a fire or EMS unit. Fire calls are handled on the Fire channel, whether you're a fire or EMS unit. While Tac/Ops channels are available, they are not used for "mutual aide". This is a tiered response county, so mutual aide is better termed automatic aide.

 

[DrParasite]

you have five ambulances county wide, and you are operating on more than one channel?

You want a real solution? all 5 ambulances switch to the best radio channel for the county. They are all dispatched on that channel, and they perform all radio operations on that one channel. Keep an alternate channel (channel 2) available for other stuff (MCIs, special events, chatter that you don't want on the main channel). But everyone is on one channel. institute a backup alpha pager system, where CAD data is automatically sent to the units pager.

To those who complain they don't want to hear other units: 1) you are paid to work, not sleep. Sorry, but your job comes first before your sleeping. 2) it's FIVE units county wide. it's not that busy. If you had 20 units county wide, I might listen, but not with 5. 3) institute a tone system or some type of alert system via the radio that sound if a call is being dispatched. if it's your unit, you take the call. if not, go back to sleep. see #1 if you have any questions.

Consolidate EMS dispatch to one location. take the funding from the 3 existing dispatch centers. one single point of contact, one person being responsible for keeping track of which unit is closest. btw, CAD is computer aided dispatch, which doesn't take the place of a dispatcher; it assists the dispatcher in doing their job, and helps with record keeping. invest in a CAD, it will be the best thing you can get, especially when the lawsuit comes regarding dispatch operations. Also, when I am on a job, I want a dispatcher listening to my channel. If I have to call for help because my life is being threatened, the response of "I wasn't paying attention" or I didn't hear it because "I was focusing on other stuff" isn't an acceptable answer (happens all too often when PD and EMS operate on different channels and are monitored by one dispatcher).

 

[Tigger]

The dispatch centers will not go away, and not for lack of effort on the EMS side. There is no way we can afford dedicated fire/EMS dispatching either, nor does the volume necessarily call for it. We also do not have pager reception.

Station alerting systems are also not in the realm of our budget, sadly. The PA will just have to do.