Effective Task Arrangement in Emergency Dispatch Centers

Abstract

Recent policy choices by the Dutch government for improving uniformity of emergency dispatch centers across the Netherlands, which include budget cuts have led to the idea of changing the current organization on and task structure of Emergency Dispatch Centers (EDC’s) in the Netherlands. The initiatives driven by technological changes were initiated in 2012. These current structural revisions make this a good moment to investigate the current functioning and alternatives for the future. Fragmentation is currently visible from the strategic to operational level where each dispatch center involves three co-located agencies of fire-, police-, and ambulance departments. Fragmentation of responsibilities and knowledge within and between emergency dispatch centers increases the complexity of transformation. An understanding of the systems complexity is needed to make well informed policy choices. With the intended transformation, concerns arise regarding the effects of policy choices on the operational level. It is unknown which different preferences exist towards operational task allocation. Operational perspective considerations to their design aren’t known yet. Tensions between organizational layers could become present, but these are unknown, with the risks of becoming known too late in the process when more money is already spent, and the government is locked in to a solution. Research Question To get insight in the problem, the research question for this thesis study is: What are the most important considerations to the effective organization of an emergency dispatch center in order to achieve high quality emergency response considering different possible scenarios to its task arrangement? Approach The answer to the research question is derived by performing literature and empirical research, including an evaluation exercise. To be able to answer the research question an overview of the current system therefore first had to be modeled. BPMN modeling was used to investigate the tasks and processes at the emergency dispatch center. IST-SOLL analysis derived prominent considerations for task change and execution. From both theory and from practice several indicators for performance of the operational system are derived. The research started with of literature review and three initial discussion group meetings with four experts at the Rotterdam-Rijnmond EDC. After this a thorough analysis was done of current and desired situation. Seven interviews with different experts from different domains within the EDC’s of Rotterdam-Rijnmond and Zuid-Holland-Zuid were used to explore the problem situation and identify concerns. To understand the performance of the system, an evaluation survey was set up. Alternative task arrangements were compared using multi-criteria analysis. For this 12 operators were asked to score three scenarios that were used to evaluate opinions about task arrangements. Furthermore 13 interviews were held accompanying the survey, to identify underlying reasons for the evaluation scores. A. Based on results from the evaluation, the best task division could be evaluated. Numerous expert and progress meetings with graduation committee at the TU Delft were used to report and iteratively improve on all aspects of the research. As an important concern is what the effect of future task arrangements/scenarios is on the performance indicators, the results are also interpreted for this. The results gave insight in which considerations are most prominent when designing the task structures at the EDC. The answer to the research question aids policy makers to assess the effect of decisions taken to change the operational task structure within the EDC. Furthermore the apparent considerations to effective task execution that weren’t known and the impact of indicators on the quality of service aid the design and discussion about future task division can now be taken into account. Conclusions When it is looked at possible task arrangements, different task distributions can be chosen, depending on which are deemed the most important criteria and how their relations are seen. It has been found that these differ from different points of view. The political layer is dependent on operators for execution of tasks, while operators have to abide to a complex system of rules. There is a complex dependency between the political and operational layers which together have to provide the best possible service to civilians. The expertise of task execution lies within the operating core. Operational agencies at the EDC are however dependent on the political choices made. With the goal to deliver high quality emergency response, decision makers should take into account the operational view on handling emergency dispatching services. Three possible task arrangement scenarios were found feasible, and were evaluated: 1. Specialist dispatching. This resembles the current situation where the responsibility for emergency dispatching is divided according to operator specialism and emergency call type. 2. Multidisciplinary intake. This displays the operational outcome of the politically desired transformation. Any type emergency call can be treated by the any operator. Backup specialists are available in case of extra knowledge need. 3. One-stop-shop intake. This resembles scenario 2, except no backup specialists are available and a true one-stop-shop is created. The evaluation shows that trade-offs have to be considered to determine the best arrangement. There is no single best scenario. While the current task division is deemed best by operators, because of its overall quality delivery, in general the conclusion can be derived that there is no best task arrangement. Certain arrangements aren’t possible or plausible in general or require very difficult resource scarcity issues to be overcome. In general describing positive and negative effects of different task arrangements is possible based on the identified and evaluated criteria. It has been concluded that quality of service is a trade-off in comparison with other criteria such as costs. Also it has been observed that operators give such high scores to ‘quality of service’ as a criterion that it actually becomes an overall goal, more than a criterion. This leads to that every criterion score that influences the quality negatively is judged badly. Thus quality can’t be traded off in the eyes of operators. There are three considerations that have to be incorporated when designing an effective task arrangement. • Standardization versus professionalization The choice exists between the ‘most uniform service delivery’ and the “best individual judgment”. Specialism increases the judgment of specific emergency calls, but decreases the uniformity of service delivery and increases dependence on specialist knowledge. Protocoling increases uniformity but extra costs might occur due to the difficulty of correct classification of emergencies. • Specialism versus generalism The initially desired situation (2) leads to more generalists and as a starting point, increases the knowledge needed. The complexity and thereby feasibility of performing the multidisciplinary intake should be examined to find to which extent the two alternative options are feasible. • Information sharing for collaboration versus information divide for privacy Regulatory issues are expected when changing task arrangements The consideration is how to improve collaboration without breaking regulatory boundaries and overcoming the issue of losing too much quality by non-collaboration. Recommendations Decreasing the complexity of the situation by improving knowledge is a general concept that has benefits in the transition process. If it is known beforehand which problems arise on an operational level, then this can save money (not turning back measures), Improve decision making consent (operators may agree more) and increase the quality of service (performance) from the new system. Creating commitment increases the chance of success. It is recommended therefore, as the process is already going on, to include operators in the EDC into the process. A proven concept of testing, which is relatively inexpensive can bring to light how to deal with the considerations, is piloting which should be carried out as follows; Before the pilot a consensus about consideration importance should be reached or at least differences discussed. Operators should be educated that not only quality of service is important from a holistic point of view. A pilot can be used to measure the performance. To do this a pilot setup needs to be made with different configurations based on the trade-offs that are found. It is relevant to do further research into the differences between the managerial and operational layers. Current research could be validated and further quantified at other EDC’s in different geographical locations. Other sectors with a similar organizational structure and transformation issues can use this research as reference point. An example is the centralization of power by combining provinces into super-provinces. ?