Emergency Medical Communications

EMS communications is based at HCMC in a state of the art communications center built in 2004. It has 5 primary workstations, plus back-up facilities and
a supervisor's office. All dispatchers are fulltime and certified as Emergency Medical Dispatchers from the National Academy of Emergency Dispatch (NAED). They are also Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic trained.

HCMC EMS utilizes the ProQA Medical Priority Dispatch System. Emergency Medical Dispatchers answered nearly 50,000 calls for service, from the 7 PSAPs located in the HCMC primary service area in 2003.

HCMC EMS uses a Unix based E911 CAD using Turbosoft TTWin Windows Emulation. This CAD is directly linked with the City of Minnepolis 9-1-1 Center. HCMC EMS is a secondary 911 PSAP; the E911 ALI/ANI telephone equipment is Positron Lifeline IAP with 4 trunked 9-1-1 lines and serviced by QWEST Communications.

We use the Motorola Gold Elite PC based radio on the State of Minnesota 800Mhz Radio System as well as monitor UHF and VHF EMS Conventional frequencies. All voice transmissions are recorded using a Wygant Encore Digital system.

In addition to triage of calls, and dispatching of HCMC EMS units, Emergency Medical Dispatchers also operate the West Metro Medical Resource Control Center (MRCC). MRCC is fully integrated into the daily operation of the HCMC EMS Communication Center. MRCC allows all paramedics operating in Hennepin County to be connected to an emergency physician for consultation or online medical direction. MRCC operators can complete phone-to-phone, phone-to-radio and radio-to-radio patches between paramedics and physicians at all hospitals statewide. MRCC has a variety of core functions that enhance communications and

coordination for EMS providors in Minnesota. In addition to local EMS system function, MRCC also provides the
following services:

• Monitor the status of local hospitals, and notifies EMS agencies when hospitals are temporarily closed to ambulances due to high volume.
• Disaster – Multi-Casualty Incident EMS Communication/Coordination point
• Monitor Minnesota's Statewide EMS frequency, ready to assist ambulances from rural Minnesota that are transporting into the Hennepin County area.
• Local coordination of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) and the Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS).
• Metro Region Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Team answering point.
  Minnesota EMS Honor Guard answering point.
• Back-up for East MRCC
• 24/7 EMS System Information resource.