Secondary Public Safety Answering Point (9-1-1 PSAP)
What is it?
A secondary 9-1-1 PSAP is an Emergency Medical Services Communication Center
that assists primary 9-1-1 Centers with emergency medical dispatching services.
Secondary 9-1-1 Centers operate and maintain the same 9-1-1 equipment as
a primary 9-1-1 center, with training and certifications focused on EMS
Communications needs.
Who is it?
There are 5 secondary 9-1-1 PSAPs in Minnesota:
These “secondary” PSAPs are recognized as secondary by the state 9-1-1 program and meet all the same requirements as a primary center. Currently, Secondary 9-1-1 PSAPs do not receive 9-1-1 funding or services such as TTY and language interpretation provided by the state to 9-1-1 PSAPs. This is due to current state statute.
Overview
Minnesota Statute 403.02 defines a Public Safety Answering Point as: ".
. .a
communications facility operated on a 24 hour basis which first receives
911 calls from
persons in a 911 service area and which may, as appropriate, directly dispatch
public
safety services or extend, transfer, or relay 911 calls to appropriate
public safety
agencies.” This definition leaves secondary PSAPs out of any
funding or services from the state 9-1-1 program.
Secondary centers provide pre-arrival and medical dispatching. The medical dispatch system follows a systematic caller interrogation that assists in determining the proper emergency medical response, and provides a zero response time with pre-arrival instruction. The Emergency Medical Dispatcher, following strict protocol can start treatment on the sick or injured by giving the caller instruction over the phone.
The services provided by the secondary dispatch center relieves primary centers from specialized training and staffing costs, added equipment/software, a medical QA program and liability. Meanwhile, Secondary Dispatch Centers have several ongoing un-reimbursed costs associated with providing this service to public safety:
The following excerpt is from the #98-06, State of Minnesota, March 1998 Office of the Legislative Auditor, 9-1-1 Best Practices Review:
“Dispatchers that provide emergency medical dispatching typically have completed additional training and have knowledge of emergency medical procedures to appropriately (1) determine the nature of medical calls, (2) mobilize the emergency response units and relay to them necessary information about the incidents, and (3) assist victims in need of medical attention before medically trained personnel arrive.
Offering prearrival instructions means dispatchers provide instructions
via telephone to people at the scene of incidents to assist injured individuals
prior to the arrival of ambulances or first responders trained in first aid.
Especially in some rural parts of
the state, where the distance between emergency medical personnel and accident
victims can be great, prearrival instructions can be of great value. In some
areas, private sector medical transportation businesses make their services
available to PSAPs. Their employees, trained as emergency medical dispatchers,
take medical calls transferred by the PSAPs and talk directly with the 9-1-1
caller as the ambulance is dispatched.
This arrangement allows PSAP dispatchers to return to communicating with
other field units while emergency medical dispatchers provide medical instructions.”
Secondary PSAP Statistics
Number of Secondary 9-1-1 Public Safety Answering Points in Minnesota