Jim Long, Northwest Fire District Debbie Gilligan, FirstWatch Inc

Measuring Fire Dispatch Performance

Who are We? Jim Long Northwest Fire District Communications

Coordinator Public Safety since

1981

Debbie Gilligan FirstWatch, Inc Regional Manager Public Safety since

1985

Performance Measures Lord Kelvin was quoted as saying –

“When you cannot measure what you are speaking about, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind, it may be the beginning of Knowledge, but you have scarcely in your thoughts advanced to a stage of science, whatever the matter may be.”

(CFAI, 1999,pp. 11-12)

Where Do We Begin? • Identify your team / empower your

experts

• Define & understand your goals

• What can be accomplished with the resources and tools you have today?

• Evaluate how well you are doing

• Allow for periodic/incremental changes or “improvements”

• Measure, Refine, Adjust & Adapt……

Why Measure? Comparison Accreditation

Adjustment of Strategy or Tactics Discover Patterns/Trends Alert to Developing Situation (Real Time) Public Scrutiny Return on Investment

Standards of Cover Accredited/Re-

Accredited This Year Central Yavapai Fire

District Glendale Fire Dept Mesa Fire Dept Northwest Fire District

What’s Worth Measuring? Elapsed Times?

Percentage Performance of an

Action? (Or Not) Frequency of an

Event Distribution of an

Event Type or Class Success or Failure Clinical Outcomes?

Incident Times – Cascade of Events

“Notification”911 SystemNotification

“Dispatch”Crew or Station

Notify

“Enroute”Crew Enroute

Wheels Rolling

“Onscene”Arrival at Patient

Or At Scene

“Clear”Unit Available or End of Incident

Alarm Handling

Time

Turnout

Time

Travel

Time

On Incident

Time

Mobilization or Lag

Time

Total Response

Time

Unit Response

Time

Total Resource (Apparatus)

Time

Total 911 Incident Time

Time

“Nor

mal

cy”

“Discovery”Event

Discovery

“Nor

mal

cy o

r Rec

over

y B

egin

s”

Notification

Soft Time

Ala

rm T

rans

fer T

ime

Ala

rm A

nsw

erin

g Ti

me

Ala

rm P

roce

ssin

g Ti

me

(NFPA 1221) (NFPA 1710)(NFPA 1710)

“Event”EventBegins

Soft Time

Discovery

Soft Time

Pre 911 System

Inci

dent

Con

trol T

ime

NFPA 1221 – Call Answering 3.3.1* Alarm. A signal or message from a person or

device indicating the existence of a fire, medical emergency, or other situation that requires action by an emergency response agency.

7.4.1* Ninety-five percent of alarms received on emergency lines shall be answered within 15 seconds, and 99 percent of alarms shall be answered within 40 seconds. (For documentation requirements, see 12.5.2.)

7.4.1.1 Compliance with 7.4.1 shall be evaluated monthly using data from the previous month.

From NFPA 1221 - 2010

NFPA 1221 – Call Processing 7.4.2* Ninety-percent of emergency call

processing and dispatching shall be completed within 60 seconds, and 99 percent of call processing and dispatching shall be completed within 90 seconds. (For documentation requirements, see 12.5.2.)

7.4.2.1 Compliance with 7.4.2 shall be evaluated monthly using data from the previous month.

From NFPA 1221 - 2010

Monthly Report Example

Public/Provider Input

NFPA 1221 Comparison 2010 Edition Answer – 15 Sec 90% 40 Sec 99%

Process 60 Sec 90% 90 Sec 99%

2013 Edition (proposed) Answer- 15 Sec 90% 40 Sec 99%

Process 60 Sec 80% 106 Sec 95% Exceptions: Language TTY/TDD Criminal Info

1221 - What Didn’t make it in 2013 A.7.4.2.1 The AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) of the

responding agency can allow certain types ofemergency calls to be excluded from the requirements of 7.4.2 that require

extra call interrogation time. All emergency calls of these types will be

identified and reviewed by the AHJ on a monthly basis. Such calls could include but are not limited to: (3) Dispatch equipment malfunction (4) Unusually high call volume due to unpredictable

scenarios (weather events, earthquakes, etc.) Exclusions should be reviewed and trends identified

that need to be addressed for possible operational or technical solutions.

Percentile VS Average -

Response Time The Philadelphia Fire Department prides itself on an average response time of 4.5 minutes for Fire Engines and 6.5 minutes for Medic Units.

Average Response Time

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

0:00

:10

0:00

:50

0:01

:30

0:02

:10

0:02

:50

0:03

:30

0:04

:10

0:04

:50

0:05

:30

0:06

:10

0:06

:50

0:07

:30

0:08

:10

0:08

:50

0:09

:30

0:10

:10

0:10

:50

0:11

:30

0:12

:10

0:12

:50

Frequency Distribution Average

Call Time Count

Percentile Response Time

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0%

100.0%

0:00

:10

0:01

:00

0:01

:50

0:02

:40

0:03

:30

0:04

:20

0:05

:10

0:06

:00

0:06

:50

0:07

:40

0:08

:30

0:09

:20

0:10

:10

0:11

:00

0:11

:50

0:12

:40

Percent Calls

Percent Calls

Defining Performance Times Clock Start….a controversial topic (Smoke & Mirrors) Time First Received at 9-1-1 PSAP Time First Received by Responding Agency

(Secondary PSAP) Time Certain Info Obtained Time Dispatched Time Unit En Route

Clock Stop (Pretty Definitive) Unit Staged Unit on Scene Crew at Patient

Where Do We Get Call Process time? Dispatch Time – Answer Time Answer = When the last Ring is picked up. Ani/Ali to CAD Dump First Keystroke Manual Entry

Dispatch = The time the ERF (Emergency Response Facility)

ERU (Emergency Response Units)are Notified Tones (Start or Finish of) Pagers, Radio Transmission

Formulas =PERCENTILE Uses a RANGE you want a percentile

OF (Talley up the numbers of occurrences Parameters “=“ tells EXCEL there’s a Formula Coming FORMULA TYPE (PERCENTLE) (paren to enclose parameters) Range (Top cell, to bottom cell like A1:A200) “,” next Parameter Percent Value (.1 = 10%, .25=25%, etc)

Live Performance Data Demo How to Look at Data in Excel

Analyitics Packages

Monitoring VS. Measuring What data sources are available to monitor Which data source contains that data that matters? If one data source is good, is two better?

Phone Data

CAD Data

ProQA Data

EPCR/RMS Data

Billing Data

Clinical Y Y Y

Dispatch Y Y Y Y Y

Financial Y Y Y

Operational y Y Y Y

Risk Mgmt Y Y Y Y

R E A S O N S

T O

M O N I T O R

D

A

T

A

S

O

U

R

C

E

S

T

O

M

O

N

I

T

O

R

Real Time Monitoring – First Watch Live Presentation Live Fire Data

Excel or Reporting Output

Dispatch Stuff Worth Measuring?

Example data source: FEMA

More Fire Dispatch Measures

Example data source: FEMA

Even More Stuff Worth Measuring

Example data source: FEMA

More for Mayor and Council

Example data source: FEMA

Contacts Jim Long Communications

Coordinator Northwest Fire District jlong@northwestfire.org 520-887-1010

Debbie Gilligan Regional Manager FirstWatch, Inc dgilligan@firstwatch.net

951-970-1026