Jason Trego, Allen County’s emergency management director, is a numbers guy.
“I’ve learned — or maybe solidified — that I am data driven,” he said.
That talent led Trego to design a database that reviews 911 procedures used by dispatchers. The goal is to improve their responses.
After that, Trego broadened his base and developed a 45-minute course to teach other 911 agencies. He presented that course at an international conference last week.
The response was overwhelming.
And now Trego is in demand.
He’s been invited to return to the same conference next year to teach a four-hour course. An agency in Johnson County also asked him to teach the class later this month. He continues to receive emails seeking more information about his program.
“I was pleased with the outcome,” he said. “It’s one thing to get up and talk to my fellow citizens from Allen County, but quite another to speak with professionals from around the world.”
TREGO created what he described as “a dashboard” using various features of Excel.
It works like this:
All calls that come into the 911 center are reviewed afterward to make sure the dispatcher is following appropriate protocols.
Every detail is reviewed, from the very first moment a dispatcher answers the call to the end. For example, the dispatcher is trained to answer the call by saying: “Allen County 911. What’s the address of the emergency?” Any deviation from that script is noted.
In an emergency, the stakes are high. Failure to follow the appropriate procedures could lead to errors, which could delay getting someone the help they need.
Trego realized that since that information is taken as part of the review process, he could simply input it into the computer program.
“What I do is sort and filter, and turn that information into usable data using pivot tables, charts and graphs. We can see which call-takers are performing very well, and which call-takers can use extra support,” Trego said.
Administrators also can identify if certain protocols are causing problems for one particular individual or multiple people, indicating the need for system-wide training.
Each deviation is assigned a point value, such as 1 point for a minor compliance issue all the way up to 30 points for a critical problem.
The dashboard is interactive. Trego can examine the work of an individual call-taker, or those who work on the same shift to see how they perform as a team, or how all call-takers perform as a whole.
