Is your agency dispatched by an accredited EMD provider? (A survey)

[helicopper 1,050]

Another thread on the subject made me wonder how many of us actually have dispatchers with EMD answering our calls...

[Remember585 815]

Just keep in mind, while there are many EMD centers around, not many are actually "accredited."

[Patch6713 18]

We are actually switching over from our local PD dispatching us to out county dispatching us this month, which is an EMD dispatch.

[helicopper 1,050]

Just keep in mind, while there are many EMD centers around, not many are actually "accredited."

OK, so who is accredited and what is the deal with getting accredited?

[INIT915 1,119]

OK, so who is accredited and what is the deal with getting accredited?

http://www.emergencydispatch.org/acc_ace.php?a=accAceEMD

[NJMedic 96]

It is my understanding that there are two groups that provide instruction in EMD. One is The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and the other is Priority Dispatch. Priority Dispatch was begun by a physician named Jeff Clawson in Utah back in the 1980's. This was around the time that proving medical instructions during a 9-1-1 call became cutting edge. This was also around the time that "Rescue 911" began so it became a hot issue. Basically Clawson wrote the first protocols for EMD and market under the name "Medical Priority Dispatch System". Fast foward to today and the 12th version of his protocols have recently been released. Around the same time that Clawson started APCO began marketing their own version of EMD. APCO has been around since the beginning of public safety communications.

The National Academies of Emergency Dispatch is an arm of Priority Disptach that "supports first-responder related research, unified protocol application, legislation for emergency call center regulation, and strengthening the emergency dispatch community through education, certification, and accreditation". I guess you could say be accredited by the NAED sounds impressive but I would have to say that 99.9% of "accredited centers are also using Clawson

Most call takers here in NJ are APCO taught but there is a smattering of centers that use Clawson. Which one is better is anyones guess. To me its like saying Seagrave is a better truck then Pierce. All depends on who you ask.

There is another accrediting agency called the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Within this commission is a section for Public Safety Communications Accredation.

http://www.apcointl.org/institute/courses/emd.htm

http://www.prioritydispatch.net/

http://www.calea.org/Online/CALEAPrograms/...ommprograma.htm

[helicopper 1,050]

Just keep in mind, while there are many EMD centers around, not many are actually "accredited."

Let me rephrase... Why aren't many actually accredited?