All emergency and doctors calls are processed through the telephone triage system known as 'Medical Priority Dispatch System' using 'ProQA'. Telecom telephone numbers populate the Computer Aided Dispatch system using caller line identification. As soon as an address is geo-verified by the call taker, it will also populate on the mapping system in Comms. This system also shows the nearest available resource to the incident on the map. All ambulances use automatic vehicle location satellite tracking - this enables the EACC to dispatch the nearest (and most appropriate) resource to an incident. That may be an executive in a car with a defibrillator.
Emergency Medical Dispatchers have a career path from call taker to dispatcher. The concept in the EACC is that the call-taker will “hear and treat” while the paramedic will “see and treat”. Pre-arrival instructions are given to the caller to ensure a continuum of care from the point the patient accesses the emergency ambulance service to the point of discharge from the ambulance service.
New Zealand has three Emergency Ambulance Communications Centres (EACC) that operate within a virtual network where technology, systems and processes are nationally consistent. Central Emergency Communications Ltd (Central Comm) is based in Wellington, located within the HQ complex of Wellington Free Ambulance in Thorndon.
Central Comm is the EACC for Wellington Free Ambulance Service, St John Central Region, Wairarapa District Health Board Ambulance Service and Taranaki District Health Board Ambulance Service as the emergency road ambulance providers, and also four emergency air ambulance providers operating from Wellington, Palmerston North, New Plymouth and Hastings. Serving a population of approximately 1 million people, Central Comm processes in the vicinity of 325,000 calls per annum.
Whenever someone rings 111 to access the ambulance service, the call is presented to Central Comm for the area covered by this EACC - or if all the Emergency Medical Dispatchers are busy, the call can be presented to either of the other two EACCs based in Auckland or Christchurch. The processes used are exactly the same. The incident details are then passed electronically between the centres using a CAD-to-CAD process and the job appears on the waiting incidents queue of the appropriate dispatcher.
International best practice in technology; systems and processes have been implemented in the EACC environment.
Central Comm is a joint venture company between St John New Zealand and Wellington Free Ambulance, currently employing 32 staff - 28 Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMDs) and 4 Team Managers Communications (TMCs). Most of the staff operate on a 12-hour shift system based on 2 days followed by 2 nights and 4 days off.
Other staff work during the day providing cover during the peak periods.
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