MedStar’s 911 center is an Accredited Center of Excellence by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch. Only 125 of the estimated 5,700 911 centers in the U.S. (2.2%) have attained this designation!
Achieving this accreditation requires a commitment to quality call taking, response prioritization and providing pre-arrival medical instructions.
For example, MedStar’s dispatchers provide over 70 callers per month with CPR instructions, and helped deliver 5 babies over the past year before first responders arrived!
This high level of quality brings peace of mind to 911 callers that MedStar’s certified Emergency Medical Dispatchers can provide you with the right response for their medical condition.
It also facilitates a very special way MedStar assigns resources to 911 calls.
Using international, evidence-based protocols, approved by the EMS System’s Medical Director, there are over 2,163 response determinants with 3,380 different response configurations, depending on the call types first response agencies tell us they want to respond to.
MedStar’s CAD is also very patient-centric! Most ‘public safety’ CADs are able to ‘flag’ addresses, allowing them to note things like gate codes, or hazards in a dwelling. But MedStar’s CAD allows us to flag PEOPLE and have a specific response plan just for them.
For example, a patient enrolled in our hospital readmission prevention, or high utilizer program, is flagged in our CAD, so if they call 911, no matter where they are, we have a special response plan for them. That special response plan typically includes the co-response of a specially credentialed Mobile Integrated Healthcare Provider (MIHP) to assess the patient to determine if there is a more patient-centric disposition for the patient, vs. simply schlepping them to an ER.
Here’s what a recent call looked like to the MedStar call taker for a 911 call from a patient who was eligible for a special response, as well as the protocol we use for one type of specialized patients.
To see facts about MedStar “one of the least understood organizations in the community,”, click here: https://www.medstar911.org/category/news-and-press-releases/
To learn more about MedStar, and the EMS system, feel free to visit the Fort Worth City Manager’s EMS FAQs here: https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/departments/citymanager/med-star
To learn more about the ongoing EMS System assessment, click the City of Fort Worth news release here: https://www.fortworthtexas.gov/news/2024/2/ems-fitch-recommendations
And, see a recent news report from the Fort Worth Report here: https://fortworthreport.org/2024/02/20/fort-worth-is-considering-four-potential-ems-models-heres-what-theyd-do/
