By Allison Manning
The Columbus Dispatch
DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio — Bob Greenlaw likes McDonald’s. Not necessarily the food, but the restaurants’ consistency.
“When you order a Big Mac, you’re always going to get the same thing, every time,” he said. “Why can’t we do that?”
Greenlaw, the first director of the combined Delaware County and city 911 dispatching center, wants every call — routine, unusual or once in a lifetime — to be answered the same. He wants dispatchers to be prepared whether it’s a call reporting a broken arm, a plane crash or the abduction of a child.
The former director of dispatching centers in New Jersey and Idaho is working toward making Delaware one of the first agencies in the country to be accredited in three areas: medical, fire and police dispatching.
Accreditation is awarded by the standard-setting National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, based in Salt Lake City. About 100 agencies worldwide are accredited in emergency-medical dispatching, but fewer than 20 in fire and only three in police.
“It’s an outside organization that comes in and says you’re doing the gold standard of service,” said Carlynn Page, who is associate director of the National Academies.
National accreditation is commonplace, and almost necessary, in some industries, such as hospitals and health care. Emergency-medical accreditation has been around for 30 years. Fire- and police-dispatching accreditation is relatively new, about 5 or 6 years old. But it’s catching on as agencies start to see the value, Page said.
Next week, consultants from the National Academies will visit the Delaware dispatching center to review the first steps toward achieving the 20 points needed for accreditation, such as creating a quality-assurance committee to review recordings of calls every week.
The national group conducts a full review every three years.
“You have to be pretty much perfect with everything,” Greenlaw said.
Dispatchers are given a protocol for every type of call. Like a salesperson making a cold call, there’s an order and script — what questions to ask and the follow-up questions to know how to diagnose the emergency.
“Little things make a huge difference,” Greenlaw said. “There is no room for error.”
Another part of accreditation is certifying dispatchers. But instead of traveling out of Delaware, they will be taking classes from their peers.
EMS Director Rob Farmer went to the National Academies headquarters in May to become certified as an instructor in emergency-medical dispatching. Last month, Tri-Township Fire Chief Troy Morris attended weeklong training, and Delaware city police Capt. Bruce Pijanowski soon will get his trip west for training.
When dispatchers have questions about a certain protocol or call, the teacher is there to answer.
People also come from all over the state for training. So far, Farmer has taught three classes, including one in Michigan.
“This is going to be a huge flag-waving,” he said of accreditation. “It’s a neat accolade for Delaware County.”
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