Quality Assurance

Metro Communications processed 15,624 medical calls in 2017.

The 5 most common medicals calls that we take are:

Falls (1,491)

Sick Person (1,428)

Unconscious/Fainting (1,269)

Breathing Problems (1,049)

Chest Pain (854) 

To process medical calls, Metro uses the Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS), which is the world’s most widely-used 911 medical emergency-type Pre-Arrival Instruction and Dispatch-Life-Support protocol system. With scripted telephone instructions for CPR, airway obstruction relief, hemorrhage control, and childbirth assistance, the MPDS has been credited with helping save thousands of lives. 

The Agency was first accredited using MPDS in August 2000, and became the 45th center in the world and the first in South Dakota to achieve this distinction. There are only approximately 5,976 PSAPs in the United States alone with this prestigious designation . This accreditation will continue through 2021, when we will once again go through the reaccreditation process. Reaccreditation commands superior, up-to-date public care and efficient use of resources when handling emergency call situations. Accreditation requires a detailed self-assessment based on the Academy’s Twenty Points of Accreditation. The Self-assessment covers everything from the center’s description of policies to the procedures outlining a quality improvement plan, continuing dispatch education, and compliance to the emergency dispatch protocols developed by the International Academy of Emergency Dispatch (IAED). 

Our agency also completes quality assurance checks for non-medical calls and radio traffic. In 2016, we implemented a new live Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement component called “Live-QA”. Dispatching in a 911 center is a complex job, which makes evaluating performance also very complex. We set out to find a method to try to get a full-picture evaluation of performance; one of the ways we identified was to complete the evaluation live on the floor, in real time. All employees receive at minimum 3 “live QA” evaluations a year. As part of the new recruit training program and implementing a problem based learning environment, our agency identified 10 core competencies that new recruits are evaluated on. These same core competencies are used to evaluate employees out of training when conducting a “live QA” evaluation. Knowledge, skills and abilities evaluated on day 1 continue throughout the career of our dispatchers. This program continues to grow and evolve.