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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-05-2022 EcomIREDELL COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ECOM ASSESSMENT PRESENTATION April 5, 2022 The Iredell County Board of Commissioners met in special session on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 in the Human Resources Conference Room of the Iredell County Government Center, 200 S. Center Street, Statesville. Board Members Present Chairman James Mallory Vice Chairman Melissa Neader Scottie Brown Gene Houpe Board Members Participating Remotely Marvin Norman Staff present: County Manager Beth Mull, County Attorney Lisa Valdez, Deputy County Manager Susan Robertson, and Clerk to the Board Amy Anderson. County Manager Beth Mull said this is the second party of the ECOM Assessment done by Winbourne. Consultant Julie Heimkes said one of the biggest changes includes a new NFPA standard that was not available in October. ECOM is the 10th largest 911 center in NC. Heimkes said the calls for service have increased 184% since 2013. Winbourne evaluated 6 areas for the study: public safety stakeholder support, staffing, policies procedures, and processes, training, quality assurance, ECOM leadership, and citizen education and engagement. Public Safety Stakeholder Support: ECOM’s public safety stakeholders, primarily fire and rescue have a lack of confidence in the center’s ability to deliver consistent and effective services. The lack of confidence is compounded by the feeling that there was inadequate correction and/or training made by ECOM supervisory personnel to improve service. The stakeholders are not always following the policies that are currently set in place. Heimkes said some of this was touched on during the radio study in the use of the radio channels. Heimkes recommended the County, ECOM, and all public safety stakeholders need to work together to develop consistency, efficiency, and standards that are followed by ECOM staff and the stakeholders. The County should move forward with implementing one countywide radio system. Heimkes said some of the complaints are the dispatchers are working off five despairing radio systems. They may dispatch on the wrong channel or a first responder may respond back on the incorrect channel. ECOM should improve their handling of complaints by implementing a more transparent review and follow-up of the incident. The quality assurance audits should be used to identify and correct deficiencies identified in the audits and considered for skill and enhancement. Heimkes said the more consistency makes it easier for the dispatchers. They have to remember so many different SOP’s for different calls. Heimkes said in the initial report it was recommended that Active 911 should be provided by the County to ensure that everybody is receiving the same information. One of the complaints was the fire departments was getting information on the Active 911. Each agency provides their own Active 911 (law enforcement does not use it). Some of the fire departments have mobiles and they use those. A mobile does not do any good for the volunteers. The initial recommendation was to provide Active 911 but this will be problematic. ECOM would need additional staffing. Heimkes said some of the fire departments have purchased different applications. Active 911 provides first responders with the address, nature code, directions, and any notes for the call. Heimkes said maybe Active 911 should not be provided by the County. The way it is delivered needs to be controlled by the County. Mull said Statesville is using a different software along with Mooresville, so now there are three different systems out there. With the understanding that there is a move to a different direction, maybe that is not something the County should standardize. Mull said if a fire department wants to use Active 911 then the County can be sure it is consistent with the information being sent out. The County cannot control the licensing and who has access, but can make sure the information is consistent and does not include HIPPA information. Mull suggested cleaning up the process and revisiting the paging idea. Commissioner Houpe asked if the pagers will have verbal capabilities. Mull said yes. Commissioner Houpe said one of the issues with Active 911 is the responders have to read information while they are driving. Mull said there is a not an Active 911 system that will verbalize. Providing Active 911 does not fit because there are 2 departments already using something different. Commissioner Houpe said the pager may be the solution. The part of the problem was the Sheriff and Detectives don’t have CAD in their vehicle and they don’t want to have to read Active 911 while they’re driving. The County has tried to address the equipment situation and then they did not issue them. Trying to create a solution without creating extra work for ECOM is a fair solution. Heimkes reviewed the complaints for the last two years. The greatest number of complaints come from fire and rescue which is interesting because they have the lowest number of calls. A lot of the complaints boil down to the disparate radio systems and making mistakes or not listening to the right channel. Some have to do with addressing. Telecommunicators are going to make mistakes. Heimkes says inviting the complainant to come in should be regular practice. A lot of the complaints are teaching opportunities. Commissioner Houpe asked if Q&A personnel or Candy’s designee should be in part of the whole process. Having a one go to person would be beneficial. Heimkes said the supervisors are the initial contact for a complaint. The supervisor knows the person. The QA person is for the whole department. It is not a bad idea to include the QA personnel. Commissioner Houpe said keeping the dispatcher out of the middle is important. Heimkes said the calls for service are going to continue increase. She suggested joint exercises and ride alongs. Staffing: Currently, ECOM is short 3 telecommunicators. Calls for service have increased 184% since 2016, while ECOM staffing has only increased 3.1%. ECOM established teams to cover all shifts and this practice works well and is supported by everyone. Because of the staffing shortage supervisors often have to cover TCs jobs. This takes them away from monitoring the TCs and ensuring the incidents are being handled properly. A formal staffing study has not been done since 2016. Heimkes suggested a staffing study. Heimkes also suggested to attempt to fill open positions. TCs have a difficult stressful job with a national 15-20% national turnover. Retail positions are paid more than TCs. Currently, calls for Convalescent Care Transport (Specialty Services Division) operate on the EMS channel. This makes the channel congested. If someone is trying to get a medical call out the door and trying to schedule a transport can be problematic. Heimkes recommended moving the person who does the SSD scheduling to dispatch and have their own channel. The employee will provide scheduling, dispatching, CAD entry, and insurance validation. This would take a load off of the TCs. Heimkes said ECOM staff admire and trust their supervisors. Heimkes complimented the Supervisors Daily Check List (includes: daily briefings, equipment, staff, scenario training, and etc). Heimkes reiterated that supervisors need to be able to do their job not the job of a TC. Heimkes said she observed supervisors taking calls that TC or a call taker should handle. Commissioner Houpe asked who takes the call. Miller said there is currently one call taker on duty. Once the one call is answered the rest are spread out. Commissioner Houpe said if a mistake is made in CAD does it start with the call taker. Miller said it could be. Ideally, the primary dispatcher would stay off the phone because that is the busiest channel and they don’t need to be caught up giving CPR instructions when a chase takes off. Supervisors jump in and take calls. There is no way to know what the next call is going to be. Commissioner Houpe said the initial start of the call is very important. Heimkes said that is very difficult to do at times because sometimes all the TC can hear is screaming. Mull said things may change as the call and questions go on. Commissioner Houpe asked how many other call centers have call takers. Heimkes said 98%. Commissioner Houpe said people sometimes devalue the call taker by title when they very well can be the most important person the caller talks to. Mull expressed the importance of a call taker keeping the caller on the phone while the dispatcher is sending help. It creates a quicker response. Policies, Procedures, and Processes: Heimkes said most of the SOPS have not been updated since 2016. Heimkes noted Miller implemented the SOPs. TCs are not confident or comfortable with going outside the box for fear of public criticism. Heimkes said it is impossible to have an SOP for every scenario. TCs are hired to because they have the ability to think outside the box, think quickly, and make calm rational decisions, but unfortunately the TCs are fearful of the public criticism and the stakeholders. Heimkes said the stakeholders are not always following the currently policies on the use of TAC channels and unit identifiers. Heimkes said the SOPs need to be updated with proper staff titles, equipment references, and should be complete. Not refer to another SOP for information. ECOM needs the support of the public safety stakeholders and the Board to feel confident in working outside the box of a policy. CAD supports different response plans and TCs need to be able to anticipate what CAD is going to recommend. Heimkes said increasing TC staff will allow supervisors to monitor TCs more closely and support them when making decision. Stakeholders need to follow the policies, specifically those concerning the use of radio channels and operational policies. SOPs ensure everyone is operating from the same core principles and standards. Currently, ECOM has a committee working on updating all of the policies with the goal of meeting CALEA standards. Heimkes said currently, EMS is not dispatched until a final nature code determinate is made. The average time is 3:29. Fire/Rescue is not dispatched until EMD prompts the TC to dispatch them. This occurs sometime between the first nature code (1 minute, 23 seconds) or up until a final nature code is determined (3 minutes 8 seconds). Heimkes said make of the stakeholders are not satisfied with the current policy. Heimkes suggested the County re-evaluate the medical dispatching policies. The stakeholders should strive to meet the new NFPA 1225 standard for Emergency Communications: 90% of emergency calls processed in 60 seconds and 95% of emergency calls processed in 106 seconds. Commissioner Houpe asked if each county medical director have the discretion to change the policy. Heimkes said yes. Staffing: In 2016, there was no formal training program for ECOM. The training department is not adequately staffed to meet the center’s needs. There is no structured training program for new hires with experience. The manual needs improving. CTOs need a better ability to establish and track goals with their trainees. ECOM does a good job with required monthly training for all employees and keeping track of required certifications. Heimkes recommended the training needs a formal schedule and establish benchmarks for experienced new hires. The training needs benchmarks and a formal process to reach each of the benchmarks. Heimkes said the one training coordinator needs additional help, an assistant training coordinator or assistance from other ECOM employees. Quality Assurance: ECOM’s QA program in September 2021. With the exception of ProQA EMD requirements, the QA goal is to assess 3% of the calls. The QA officer will work closely with the training coordinator to recommend appropriate training programs based on quality improvement findings. Heimkes said in lieu of a second QA position, the County could contract with ProQA to provide EMD and EFD compliance and allow the current QA officer time to focus on compliance of regular calls. ECOM Leadership: The director and assistant director have experience, certifications, and education to perform their jobs. They are well respected by their staff. Some of the public safety stakeholders have expressed concern in their abilities. Heimkes suggested ECOM leadership increase their visibility with the public safety stakeholders. When working with stakeholders a clear and concise strategy for communications and conflict resolution should be developed. The County should implement a governance agreement which clearly define structure. Commissioner Houpe said getting the people in place and the medical director updating the EMD policy will get the stakeholders calls out sooner. The rest is to get the staffing, efficiency, and consistency which falls into training and retaining staff. He said there has to be some give and take. Heimkes highly recommended the County create a formal governance model for ECOM and all public safety stakeholders. A governance model provides a clear direct path for the operational, technical, and fiscal responsibility. Currently, there is not one. Heimkes will provide samples. Heimkes complimented ECOM on their community education with their website, newsletter, facebook, and outreach programs. Heimkes said the “Spotting of Santa” is a great outreach. Heimkes said Firewire can often contain negative comments about ECOM which can cause morale problems and have an adverse effect in the community. Chairman Mallory said the negative needs to turn into a positive which is going to require the County doing something government doesn’t normally do; engage outside the prescribed lines of communication. Firewire does not exist in most other counties, but it does here. It is a reality and the County needs to leverage it into a positive point that can be a support. A good working relationship with Firewire is going to require give and take on both accounts. Mallory said this is one thing that has to be figured out and failure to do so creates more heat than light. Commissioner Houpe said Monroe County, NY has a 911 incident page that lists all calls. Houpe said something similar to that would satisfy some people’s request for information. Houpe also mentioned the PulsePoint App, where the CAD logs generic information. Heimkes said the current CAD may have that ability. The nature codes are tampered to be public facing. Commissioner Houpe said the APP puts out generic information. Houpe thinks this would take away further complaints from people not getting further information. Chairman Mallory asked staff to follow up on the PulsePoint APP. Chairman Mallory said the County has been on a journey over the eight plus years. Mallory gave a brief history of the department. The County’s leadership team worked to address the environment with the new Public Safety Center. SOPs came on board in 2016. There has been an explosion of population and calls that is only going to continue. This has been a work in progress just in the nick of time. At this point the focus needs to be on the people – not just the hardware and that is a tall order for a county who has doubled in size in the last 20 years. As a result of the first study the County was able to address the radio issue. It is clearly the design to support the County in the future. The current assessment addresses the hardware and how it is all pulled together. This one is harder because of the human element and that is never predictable. The challenge with staff and stakeholders is to go through the recommendations to see how they line up to meet the objectives. Chairman Mallory thanked everyone for the collaborative effort. Commissioner Houpe expressed appreciation to Heimkes. The next step is taking steps to get everyone on the same page. Commissioner Brown agreed. Commissioner Houpe asked Heimkes to highlight the recommendations that have come from the end users to help achieve the goals. Houpe asked what flexibility does the call take and/or dispatcher have to deviate from the EMD recommendation. Miller said they have every flexibility to change the nature code when going through a call. A caller could say their mom fell but then find out she fell because of a heart attack. Chairman Mallory said the caller is the first person in the chain. The information received may not match what is on the scene. Responders need to have appropriate expectations. Adjust accordingly and attack to overcome. Heimkes said maybe there is a lack of understanding on how EMD works. Mull said the TCs are only going to have the information the caller is giving. The first responders have to understand they are being sent before all the information is received. If things change and they are sent as soon as the call comes in the story and situation may change. Heimkes said EMD is a great tool. Currently, TCs know exactly what questions to ask. Fire calls are dispatched within 30 seconds of the initial call versus 1 minute 40 seconds or 3 minutes. Chairman Mallory noted the inherent delay to 911 calls to Statesville Police Department. If Statesville Dispatchers are unable to get the call the call reverts back to ECOM and a deputy is dispatched. Mull said Vyper Simulcast is the way to go. Vice Chair Neader said no crisis comes with a set of instructions. Educating the public is a key. Neader encouraged everyone to be a helpful resource. Commissioner Houpe asked if the County should almost over-hire. Mull said that has been talked about. Currently, the part-time pool is bridging the gap.