Publisher's Synopsis
Manual for training new Emergency 911 Operators in the Emergency Call Center from 2007. The Emergency 911 Operators would triage calls and transfer to agency call-takers in an efficient manner. Because most 911 calls arrive in bunches, and not randomly, duplicating calls overwhelm most 911 systems. The structure of the Tucson 911 model effectively prevented the duplicate calls from blocking other calls and losing information about emergency situations, providing greater safety for the public and the first-responders.
The "triage PSAP" is the only call center structure that can effectively handle the spikes of 9-1-1 calls that quickly overwhelm other call center configurations. It is rare because it is non-intuitive, requiring a transfer on every call. However, the advantages of answering calls on average in less than three seconds, with the ability to screen duplicates and non-emergent calls makes this system superior in providing 9-1-1 service. The need to transfer impacts service almost not at all in comparison to the long waits of other systems. More information is obtained and more lives are saved. Do we want a system that is more intuitive, or one that actually saves lives?
