By Shannon Eliot
EMS1 Editor
Did you know that communications interoperability problems play a significant role in first responder fatalities? In fact, the 9/11 Commission found that poor communication was responsible for a large number of firefighter deaths at the World Trade Center. With this kind of evidence, it is of paramount importance that your agency’s communications system is up to date, for the safety of both your patients and your crew.
If you’re looking for ways to improve your agency’s communications procedures, here are some quick and effective measures you can take.
1. Swap radios. Ideally, all agencies maintain a reserve of extra radios to distribute to other responders in the event of an emergency. By ensuring that all team members possess the same equipment, agency leaders can be confident that EMS personnel can communicate in the most critical times.
2. Utilize patching. Agencies can still work with incompatible radio systems if they are connected to a central switchboard-like system. This switchboard translates a signal sent from one system so it can be received by another connected system.
3. Share channels. Partner with other EMS agencies to set aside a specific radio channel for connecting to other incompatible systems. It provides direct interoperable communications and occupies only one channel per conversation.
4. Share systems. Sharing a single (often trunked) radio system provides service to the most agencies within a region. Internet Protocol based systems and software-defined radios are the most reliable form of interoperability technology and do not require dedicated channels.
Each agency is different with varying budgetary and logistic requirements. However, you don’t need a large amount of money to take the first step in improving your communications systems. And when that once unfathomable mass casualty event comes around, you will definitely be glad you did.
Information for this tip was collected from an April 2007 GAO report at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07301.pdf.