Department of Health returns consistantly show Alert C3 has the best EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) call handling and processing times.
Peter Clark,
MIS Emergency Systems Ltd

EMDC Dashboard

The ALERT EMDC Dashboard has been designed to meet the monitoring requirements of the busy Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre. Although there are a number of such systems which can be interfaced to CAD systems, the key criticism of many of these is that they are over-complex, difficult to understand and as a result ineffectual. This is not surprising when we consider that the main issue is not the availability of indicators, there is a wealth of measurable data in a Command and Control Systems, but that this information needs to be clearly tailored and targeted to the individual.

 Defining the Dashboard

In developing the EMDC Dashboard we have clearly defined what it is for, and how it will achieve this, simply put;

Any factor which can potentially effect operational performance, and which can be reacted to by Control Staff, then it should be shown in real time, clearly and unambiguously. Any other factor, to which Control Staff have no direct influence on, should not be shown.

In operation the EMDC Dashboard has been designed to monitor all of these performance influencing components in a single display (usually installed on a Plasma or other Large screen display), but available via a browser on any desktop. The display is a real-time constantly updating view. Clear indicators show how the team is performing throughout the shift, and crucially, the current state of play. A healthy system will show in green as standard, and only when a specific issue is failing (below user defined standards) will the dial change to Red indicating that a Control Management response is required.

 The key aspects that Control can react to are;

  • Call Answering Standard  

  • Cat ‘A’ Allocation Standards

  • RRV Allocation Standards

  • Hospital Turnaround Times

  • Status Plan Compliance

  • Resource Production

  • Rest Period Status

 
 Keeping it Focused

It is very easy to look for other factors that may be useful however each element should meet the criteria described above, i.e. be react-able to by the EMDC. For example other indicators which have been discounted from the primary display are measures such as ‘The overall job cycle time’ and ‘The Address Verification Time’. This is simply because, although these do have their uses, and analysis of these elements can be of help in improving overall performance, they cannot be re-acted to in any meaningful way by Control Management on a real-time basis. They would therefore only serve to dilute the effectiveness of the EMDC Dashboard and reduce the desired reaction to the elements which can be addressed on a real-time basis.

Drill Down

As an operational tool the EMDC Dashboard is designed to 'Drill Down' to the detail behind the display, for example if a specific Hospital was experiencing delays in resource turnaround, simple clicking on the dial will bring up a summary view of the current activity at the unit, together with a recent history, clearly showing if the situation is worsening on actually on the mend. An example of a Hospital Drilldown is shown below.

Further Details

For further details including an opportunity to try it out on our own demonstration web system, please contact MIS Emergency Systems, contact details on our Home Page.