How 9-1-1 Works

Have you ever wondered what happens when you dial 9-1-1? Your one emergency phone call sets off a chain of events that passes through several different call centers and many different people. Your phone call may change hands 5 times before the Paramedics are alerted to respond and all of this usually happens in less than 75 seconds. When your call is first received, it is answered at the Ottawa Police Communications Centre in downtown Ottawa and is then relayed to the Ottawa Paramedic Service Communications Centre in the south end of Ottawa, where staff specialize in answering and dispatching Paramedic calls.

The 9-1-1 Operator
 

When you dial 9-1-1, your call first goes to the Ottawa Police Communications Centre where it is received by a group of specially trained 9-1-1 operators.

These 9-1-1 Operators are the ones who answer your call for help and say, "9-1-1 emergency, do you need Police, Fire, or Paramedics?" Depending on your answer to this question, the 9-1-1 Operator can forward your call to specialized Call Takers at the Ottawa Police Service, Ottawa Fire Service or Ottawa Paramedic Service.

If your call is redirected to the Ottawa Police Service, it just changes hands and is answered by a Police Call Taker in the same room.

If your call is redirected to either the Ottawa Fire Service or Ottawa Paramedic Service, it travels across the city to two separate and completely different locations. The 9-1-1 Operator can also remain on the line while you are speaking to any one of these services so that they can gather more information and assess the address for potential hazards.

Ottawa Paramedic Service Communications Centre
 

The Ottawa Paramedic Service Communications Centre is responsible for receiving and dispatching all calls that deal with medical or traumatic life threatening emergencies in Eastern Ontario. All Communications Officers must be fluently bilingual in English and French. This specialized centre controls Ambulances in the urban and rural areas of the City of Ottawa as well as many areas in Eastern Ontario such as Prescott / Russell, and Stormont / Dundas / Glengarry.

Once your call is redirected to the Ottawa Paramedic Service Communications Centre it is answered by the Communications Call Taker using a computerized (Windows-based) phone system. As soon as the Call Taker obtains your information and enters it into another Windows-based system, your emergency is prioritized and it is sent across the room to the Dispatcher. The Dispatcher is responsible for selecting the most appropriate Paramedic Unit to respond to the call. This entire process must happen in less than 120 seconds.

Paramedic Communications Administration Officer

The Administration Officer monitors all out of area Paramedic Units that enter the City of Ottawa and directs them to the appropriate radio frequency as well as monitoring fixed-wing and rotary-wing Air Ambulances. The Clerk is also responsible for giving crews their call information and obtaining the patient's name over a secure phone line once the call is complete.

Paramedic Communications Call Taker
 

When the Call Taker first answers your call they will confirm the address where the Paramedics are needed with a system called the Automatic Number Identifier / Automatic Location Identifier (ANI/ALI). The person calling is then asked some very important protocol questions, "Is the person awake?", "Is the person breathing normally?", “How old is the person?” and “Tell me what happened”.

If no potential life threatening conditions are assessed during this primary questioning, further, more specific questioning will be asked.

Based on your answers to all of these questions, the call is prioritized and sent to the Communications Dispatcher who will immediately dispatch the Paramedics to the address where they are needed with a very minimal amount of information. While the Paramedics are being sent, the Call Taker will continue to gather more information by following a computerized flow chart called the Dispatch Priority Card Index (DPCI). Depending on the nature of the emergency, the DPCI directs the Call Taker to ask precise questions that pertain to specific emergencies. The DPCI can also help the Call Taker provide clear and concise pre-arrival first aid instructions to the caller. In the middle of all this, the Call Taker can also switch phone lines and notify the Police or Fire Department if they are needed. As you can probably imagine, many people who call for Paramedics may be very emotional depending on the circumstances that they are dealing with. Considering that the Ottawa Paramedic Service Communications Centre answers over 110,000 calls each year for the City of Ottawa alone, it should be obvious that this job requires someone who can stay calm under pressure.

From the time the call is first answered, it must be prioritized and sent to the Communications Dispatcher's computer in less than 45 seconds.

Paramedic Communications Dispatchers

There are 4 dispatcher roles that are used to disseminate 9-1-1 calls requiring Ottawa paramedics.

1 - Alpha Dispatcher

The first Dispatcher is referred to as Alpha. This dispatcher first receives the information on their main computer screen. They are notified by both visual and audible prompts. The next step is to locate the address in a computerized mapping system called the ARIS-II VisiCAD Explorer Map. Once the Dispatcher knows where the address is, they select the most appropriate Paramedic Unit to respond to the call. The Paramedics are then notified by restricted radio or secure phone line and directed to switch their radio to one of two restricted radio frequencies (Bravo or Charlie).

2 & 3 - Bravo and Charlie Dispatchers

Once the Paramedics change their radio frequency, either the Bravo or Charlie dispatcher give them geographical information and chief complaint to the call. These dispatchers are also responsible for updating the paramedics of any pertinent patient information once the call has been completed by the call taker.

4 - Deployment Officer

The fourth dispatcher is the Deployment Officer. He shares the same radio frequency as the Alpha dispatcher. The Deployment Officer is charged with logging on vehicles at the beginning of their shifts, moving all available paramedic units to strategic positions in the city as dictated by the deployment plan, monitor eating periods, as well as ensuring paramedic units are sent home on time at the end of their shifts.

Dispatcher Work Stations

The Dispatcher work station is ergonomically designed and equipped with a restricted radio system, secure phone lines, six computer monitors, 2 keyboards, 4 mice and a numerical keypad. The first three monitors belong to the ARIS-II VisiCAD and run in real time. The fourth monitor provides the phone and Paramedic Post paging system. The fifth monitor is for restricted radios only. The sixth monitor is for monitoring ambulance distribution to local hospitals, Paramedic duty break spreadsheets as well as for accessing Policies & Procedures, Deployment Plans and other important legislation and acts that regulate a dispatcher’s job. These computers give the Dispatcher the ability to monitor and direct absolutely everything from one desk. During any given minute, the Dispatchers will direct movements of up to 65 Ambulances and 12 PRU’s (Paramedic Response Unit – these are the Impala’s that you see with a single paramedic on board who first-respond to high priority calls), communicate with multiple agencies and assign numerous calls. It is without a doubt that this job requires an extraordinary ability to multitask and stay calm under pressure.

Dispatcher Multitasking

From the time each call first appears on the Dispatcher's screen, they have only 75 seconds to obtain the call information, assess the situation, confirm the priority on the call, organize the details, locate the caller's address, find an appropriate Paramedic unit to respond, notify the Paramedics and continuously scribe all of this information into the dispatch computers. Meanwhile, the Dispatcher is also communicating with other dispatchers in the room, updating Police Communications or Fire Communications about the situation, and processing numerous other calls that are occurring simultaneously.

The Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa is responsible for promoting the practice of Paramedicine and ensuring the highest level of care for our patients.  We are leaders in the advancement of Paramedicine and achieve our objectives through public awareness, research and education.  We lobby for self-regulation under the Regulated Health Professions Act.  We also assist in fundraising for community-based charities.  The Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa is a proud chapter of the Ontario Paramedic Association and the Paramedic Association of Canada. The Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa (PPAO) is not a labour union.