Jim Long, Northwest Fire District NFPA - Measuring Fire Dispatch Performance 2013 Updates

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 ) Absolute zero (0 K) equivalent to − °C (− °F).

Where Do We Begin? Identify your team / empower your experts Define & understand your goals Define what is important to measure 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” How will you measure change/improvements? effectiveness? Measure, Refine, Adjust & Adapt……

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

What’s Worth Measuring? Elapsed Times? Performance of an Action? (Or Not) Distance Traveled? Frequency of an Event Distribution of a Type or Class Success or Failure Outcomes?

Standards of Cover Arizona Fire Agencies - Accredited/Re- Accredited Apache Junction Fire District Central Yavapai Fire District Chandler Glendale MCAS Yuma Mesa Fire Dept Northwest Fire District Peoria Tempe Yuma rthwestfire.org /pdf/SOC2011.pdf

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

Percentile Response Time

What is 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 oTones oPagers, oRadio Transmission oStation Package Activated

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) (parentheses to enclose parameters) Range (Top cell, to bottom cell like A1:A200) “,” next Parameter Percent Value (.1 = 10%,.25=25%, etc)

Statistically Valid Data =PERCENTILE(AS2:AS5850,AY2)  FunctionData Range Percent Parameter

Incident Times – Cascade of Events Primary to Secondary PSAP Lag

NFPA 1221(2010) – 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 )  Compliance with shall be evaluated monthly using data from the previous month. From NFPA

NFPA 1221(2013) – 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 )  Compliance with shall be evaluated monthly using data from the previous month. From NFPA NO CHANGE

NFPA – 1221 – January 2013

NFPA 1221 (2010) – 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 )  Compliance with shall be evaluated monthly using data from the previous month. From NFPA

NFPA 1221 (2013) – Call Processing  7.4.2* With the Exception of Call types identified in percent of emergency call processing and dispatching shall be completed within 60 seconds, and 95 percent of call processing and dispatching shall be completed within 106 seconds. (For documentation requirements, see )  Compliance with shall be evaluated monthly using data from the previous month. From NFPA

1221 Annex “A” You Are a Primary

1221 Annex “A” You Are Secondary

Monthly Report Examples –FIRE Types

NFPA 1221 (2013) – Call Processing  * Emergency Alarm Processing for the following Call types shall be completed within 90 seconds 90 percent of the time and within 120 seconds 99 percent of the time.  Calls requiring emergency medical dispatch questioning and pre-arrival medical instructions  Calls requiring language translation  Calls requiring the use of a TTY/TDD device or audio/video relay services  Calls of criminal activity that require information vital to the emergency responder safety prior to dispatching units.  Hazardous Materials incidents  Technical Rescue incidents From NFPA Entirely new for 2013

Monthly Report Examples – Excepted Types - EMD/Hazmat/TRT

Real Time Monitoring

Alerting

1710 – 2014 Revision Current version 2010 (2001,2004) Public Comment period underway Closes This month – New Standard should be out January Proposed Travel time of 240 Seconds 90 percent of the time: NO regard for geography Demographics Road network quality NFPA 1710: Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments

NFPA Response Call Processing Time. See , Dispatch Time * Dispatch Time. The point of receipt of the emergency alarm at the public safety answering point to the point where sufficient information is known to the dispatcher and applicable units are notified of the emergency. From NFPA

Public/Provider Input

NFPA 1221 UPDATE Comparison 2010 Edition (Obsolete) Ring to Answer – 15 Sec 90% 40 Sec 99% Process to Dispatch 60 Sec 90% 90 Sec 99% 2013 Edition Ring to Answer- 15 Sec 90% 40 Sec 99% Process to Dispatch 60 Sec 80% 106 Sec 95% Exceptions: EMD- EMS pre-arrival Language TTY/TDD Criminal Info Hazmat Technical Rescue 90 Sec 90% 120 Sec 99%

What Didn’t make it in 2013 A The AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction) of the responding agency can allow certain types of emergency calls to be excluded from the requirements of 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.

Defining Performance Times Clock Start….a controversial topic (Smoke & Mirrors) Time First Received at 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

What Kind of Variables can Throw off Measurement? Can’t Verify Address Location Changing (Driving) Caller won’t answer questions Caller gives bad answers Multiple calls to same event What can you control? What is beyond your control?

Sources to Monitor vs. Reasons to Monitor What data sources are available to monitor Which data source contains that data that matters? If one data source is good, is two better? REASONS TOMONITORREASONS TOMONITOR