Suggestions and Recommendations - Volunteer EMS Group

[Buddy Jackson]

Hello group,

I am a chairperson for a volunteer EMS agency that staffs a PGA tournament each year. I've been asked to try to find something better than pen and paper to document our calls and dispatches. Being a former dispatcher, I've always thought "CAD" but knew that we could never afford anything... until I found Tickets.

As I mentioned, our service only works one (maybe two) week a year, and we are entirely volunteer. We are "funded" by the sponsor(s) of the tournament, but we're always asked to keep our costs low and "only what's necessary." I'm hopeful that Tickets can fit what I'm looking for, but this is where I'm asking for your help.

I'm looking for something that can be run on multiple computers at a time, basically so we don't have to lock one person into playing dispatcher and don't have to play chair switcharoo when the dispatcher needs a break. I have a feeling I'll be "hosting" the CAD on a computer that just gets plugged into our local network for the week. I have a lot of questions, but I also don't know of any "demo" sites out there where I can try Tickets out.

Sorry for the long email, but I thank you in advance for anything you can help me with!

[Arnie Shore]

Buddy, as a former didpatch system user and apparently not a sysAdmin, and by the content of your questions, you may not be familiar with the effort and time needed to install and configure a CAD to where it is useful.  For any CAD!

Now with utility limited to that week or two a year, I wonder whether the installing, configuring, etc., would be more trouble than it's worth for you.

But that's practical old me saying so.  Others on the list here will prbly have different perspectives.

AS

[Mark Taylor]

Maybe he could use a “hosted” tickets just for the few cases where he needs it. On the other hand, he will fall in love with it and start using Tickets for much more than a couple of special events.  

Mark

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[jms.comp...@gmail.com]

Buddy, 

    Never done a PGA event but I used to do Nascar. and pre-covid that meant two weekends a year you built a PD, EMS and Fire incident response plan for a medium size city .. 

    First thing I would do, and you probably are already doing, is get with the incident management team and get a copy of the Incident action plan.  

    Second is based on your experience and the IAP you should spin up a copy of Tickets on a web server instance, vultr is one option I like due to cost and features. Now the important part build your 

organization into Tickets but before you do anything else, snapshot (backup) the install so you can restore and start over.  Now run some exercises , restore and repeat before you get anywhere near the 

actual event .   

     The plan should get tweaked after every event based on your hot wash and after action reports, but the back up is going to always be your starting point even as you roll it forward so that you don't start from scratch every time. 

    For events like this that occur over a relativity large area I would also include Taccar maps and I would go so far as to include what three words as well.  If you are not on a radio system that will allow you to 

know where all your crews are  (GPS enabled)  find a Cellular app  Lastly, be sure you understand move up / coverage in Tickets as our experience was a couple of quick transports occurring in quick succession

left large holes in the event coverage plan, and the EMS crews sometimes got hung up at the ER for extended times also blowing the initial plan up.  

   Lastly, we found that having a dedicated Incident Dispatch Team (two or three people) was much better and more effective than having everyone take a turn at the phones / radio. 

   Good luck - 

[Arnie Shore]

Buddy, whatever you decide to do, I want to point out that the software aside, there's huge benefits in being able to pick the brains of guys like the responders here, who have 'been there, done that.'  Their shared insights are invaluable.

AS

[Buddy Jackson]

Thank you for all the replies so far! Here's some more that I probably should have mentioned:

• Our service only staffs the course, and only with golf carts. Any transports out is done by the local FD. Now that being said, we also have a group of volunteer docs and nurses that will evaluate and treat people back at our HQ, but if they need a hospital we don't handle the transport, just arranging it.
• While we only work a week (or two) a year, we'd like to have electronic historical data to reference. All of our dispatch logs for the last almost 40 years are on paper, so to pull any data from that would be horrendous and terribly time consuming.
• The tournament isn't for a few months yet, so I should have plenty of time to build what we need. Key word being should.

Again, thank you for what you've offered so far. If you have any other thoughts or didn't opine before, please feel free!

Buddy

[jms.comp...@gmail.com]

So the conversation changes a little --  

     But before I go on I have a couple of questions - 

      * If there is an incident in say the 8th Green spectators stands, how are you dispatched (requested) ?  Through 911, on site security via radio, text messages from the spectators, all of the above ??  

      * If you have a walk in to your medical tent (HQ) What is the triage process and through whom ?  

      * In either case if you determine you have to transport,  how is the unit requested / dispatched. Or are there a dozen of them sitting in a taxi line ?? 

     * Is there a unified incident command and under what authority are you operating, what systems do they already have in place to meet their legal records requirements .? 

------------------

[Buddy Jackson]

1) We are requested through a variety of methods, including phone (not 911), public safety radio and course radio (marshals, concessions, club/tournament administrators, etc).

2) Walk-ins are handled by the EMS committee chairpersons (4 of us) and/or the nurses/docs if they are in the building. The committee chairpersons also serve as EMS Supervisors, so sometimes all four of us may be sitting there or there may just be one to man the phones/radios.

3) If an ambulance is needed for transport, that is requested by radio to the city's fire/police dispatch, who then dispatch the ambulance to us.

4) We operate under a protocol written specifically for us on course grounds.

[jms.comp...@gmail.com]

So the real question here is rather the data collected and data flow of Tickets will meet your needs based on your protocol (#4) and the only way you will be able to determine that is to spin up a site and walk through some of last years dispatches to see if you get what you need for a incident trail.  

If it does, then a cloud based hosting solution for your event will most likely give you the stability, security, host bandwidth and access you need for the various roles you implement.  

Again, if it were me I would have a designated Incident Dispatch Team as the key (central) contact point working the various shifts.