In the public service sector, we must increase accountability and the accuracy of our decisions. Now, there are more information management systems available to first responders, as well as an increase in the education levels of both municipal administrators and emergency service executives. But how much accuracy in data-driven decision making and data collection is sufficient?
One of the areas under debate in emergency services is incident triage. Many organizations have purchased computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems. These systems are programmed with many different types of calls, in order to limit sending out unnecessary equipment on calls. However, triaging is still completed by trained people who take what frantic citizens tell them and translate that information into the best treatment option for victims. Due to time standards under NFPA, they need to complete this triage and other dispatching in roughly a minute. This places the call taker and/or dispatcher in the difficult position of sacrificing accuracy or speed. Which is a better sacrifice?