Operations Centre Reports
OpCen Reports Insight’s OpCen Reports highlight examples of outstanding responses to Triple Zero (000) calls by our dedicated staff at Operations Centres around the state. Townsville
Toowoomba
Southport
Jolene Henrich
Lauren Arndt
Shonara Selwyn
When Townsville EMD Jolene Henrich took a call from an anxious caller who had a laceration to her thumb, she employed good situational awareness and empathy while modifying her tone to calm the caller.
Toowoomba EMD Lauren Arndt used all her tools, instincts and experience to establish the exact location of a patient critically injured in a vehicle rollover and subsequently provide the caller with lifesaving Pre-Arrival Instructions (PAIs).
Southport EMD Shonara Selwyn did an excellent job sorting the chicken from the egg when she received a call for a patient who had fallen on the ground and was not responding.
Jolene picked up on the subtle clues provided by the caller, ‘My husband’s just gone out’ and ‘I don’t feel very well’. Jolene instructed the caller to sit down and place her phone on speaker. Soon after the caller stated, ‘I’ve just got a feeling I am going to faint’ and ‘My fingers are all tingly’.
The caller had come across the incident and while he knew of a landmark nearby, he was not sure of the road on which the incident occurred. Lauren remained calm asking very specific questions to ascertain the patient’s exact location. Just after Case Entry question 3 (CE3), the caller stated, ‘He’s bleeding a lot, he’s bleeding a lot’. Lauren immediately ceased questioning to provide haemorrhage control instructions.
Call Lesson Jolene expertly demonstrated the importance of creating and maintaining a rapport with our callers. Jolene quickly identified the caller’s anxiety may have been having an impact on her condition. Jolene was able to calm the caller down and slow her breathing down and ensure the injury was properly managed and the caller was safely seated.
In focus – Public Place The issue around assessing a location as a ‘Public Place’ all comes back to the EMD understanding the context of the situation.
Call Lesson When Case Entry question 4 (CE4) ‘Are you with the patient now?’ has been answered, the yellow Pre-Arrival Instruction (PAI) target tool will become available in the ProQA tool bar. This tool provides a fast track to the Control Bleeding Post-Dispatch Instructions (PDIs). Other PDIs such as Amputation, Fitting and Critical caller danger are also available under the yellow PAI tool. The instructions can be delivered then the return to Case Entry fast track button can be selected to continue the questioning sequence.
Shonara sought clarification having the caller tell her ‘exactly what happened’. This clarification and noisy, snoring like breathing alerted Shonara to the patient’s dire situation and she was able to get ‘hands on chest’ very quickly.
Call Lesson MPDS V13.2 introduced the first law of ground level falls: The fall is the ‘chicken’ and the arrest is its ‘egg’. This law may be a little confusing, but it is used to illustrate that while a caller may only report a fall, a medical arrest may be the cause of a reported ground-level fall. This law’s intention is to remind EMDs to always consider that the patient’s fall may be the result of a medical problem, for example fainting, heart arrhythmia or stroke. In this instance, Shonara correctly clarified the caller’s initial description and identified the tell-tale noises associated with Agonal/ineffective breathing.
Things to consider: Can members of the public see the patient? For example, if the caller is at a school, and the patient is located within the sick bay, office, classroom or an oval, you could expect this will not be considered a public place. A difference might be if the caller mentions an event at the school where parents or community members may be present, for example an open day, awards ceremony or sporting event. Remember that the public place is identifying if there is a likelihood for privacy issues/embarrassment to the patient, or where injuries and/or patient condition may cause distress for the people walking by. If you transpose the previous example to another location/environment, the same thought process applies. EMDs should display situational awareness when deciding on the ‘Public Place’ selection. Utilisation of the ‘Public Place’ selection often will see an increase in the priority of the response. However, EMDs should not fall into the trap of manipulating ProQA to get the higher response by answering ‘Yes’ to ‘Public Place’ as a shortcut.
Summer 2020–21
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