The Sarpy County Emergency Communications Department has developed a Quality Assurance and Quality Inspection (QA/QI) program to help us ensure that the agencies we dispatch for as well as our citizens are receiving our best level of service and to track that policies, procedures, and protocols are being followed. Our program is based on national standards established by APCO/NENA and Priority Dispatch®. We review a minimum of 2% of all calls for service in accordance with these national standards for the Call Taker position, and 3% of Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) calls in accordance with Priority Dispatch® standards.
For Call Taker QA evaluations, supervisors review two 911 calls per shift using a basic evaluation template that the dispatchers helped to establish. Based on these evaluations, we rate the quality of service that is being provided and make sure department policies and procedures are being followed. These evaluations provide us with information so that we can give recognition to dispatchers who consistently meet the highest standards while provide coaching, counseling or additional training to dispatchers who may need it.
Each week twenty-five EMD calls are reviewed and evaluated by Priority Dispatch®, the company that provides our EMD protocols. Using Priority Dispatch® to complete these evaluations ensures we are using the protocols correctly and allows us to provide dispatchers with timely feedback.
Law Radio Dispatch QA
Our next phase is the addition of Law Radio Dispatch QA. A committee of dispatchers have established the guidelines, standards, and scoring that will provide the evaluation template for supervisors to use to review Law Radio Dispatch performance. After Law Radio Dispatch QA is established, we will add Fire/EMS Radio Dispatch to our QA program. Completion of this last section will indicate that calls can be evaluated from the moment the 911 phone rings through radio dispatch and to final disposition.