Software Reduces EMS Response Times in Bay County, Fla.

When responding to an emergency, seconds truly can make the difference between life and death. New software is reducing response times and improving multi-jurisdiction response in Bay County, Fla. The software — which is installed in public safety answering points operated by the county and its cities and laptops used in first responder vehicles — allows first responders and dispatchers to see the locations of responding vehicles and emergency calls. This makes it easier for county first responders to request help from cities, while also deploying the nearest help to an emergency scene, according to Corky Young, emergency medical services (EMS) director for the Bay Medical Center.

The new software, installed at the beginning of August, takes a snapshot of a call coming into the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and forwards the information to the local 911 call center that can then dispatch for additional assistance.

The software is the latest iteration of a computer-aided dispatch system that Bay Medical EMS has been using since March. Using GPS installed in a laptop in the vehicle, the system allows EMS, fire and police to see and respond to the location of a call while the dispatcher is still on the phone with the caller. “I’m out right now, and I’m looking over at the screen,” Young said from an ambulance. “If there’s a call near me that I see them entering, I can be halfway to the scene, or even on the scene, before they are dispatching the call over the radio.”

Dispatch still sends the details of the call over the radio, he said. “But that’s to confirm what they’re seeing on the screen.”

That capability has cut 45 to 60 seconds off Bay Medical EMS response times, Young said. It has also reduced radio traffic and the potential for errors caused by a responder hearing a piece of information incorrectly. The system can also push additional information, such as dispatcher notes and gate codes, to the ambulances.

In addition, automatic vehicle location functionality allows dispatchers in the EMS communications center to see where all the ambulances are at any time. “Rather than by memory trying to remember where these units might be as they’re transitioning back and forth between the station and the scene and the hospital and back to the station,” Young said, “we can look up on a map and say, ‘There’s the closest unit, they get the call.’”

Each of the units — EMS, police and fire — can see all the calls or filter what they see by type. This improves situational awareness when multiple agencies are involved in a response. “For example, we have where the ambulances are responding from,” said Capt. Joel Heape, commander of the Support Services Division of the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. “If they’re in a location that may be still be a hot zone on a call, then the supervisor who is looking at that call, controlling the scene and in command of that incident can advise them to move. Without that technology, we may not know exactly where they are.”