Magazine / Emergency & Crisis Management Mar 22, 2021 9:00:00 AM

Covid Extension in a 112 PSAP: step by step set up

For 25 years Beta 80 worked on many kinds of emergency response, but none of it like the COVID-19 outbreak. To support our 112 PSAPs, our team needed to rethink the communication with our Emergency Management customers and introduce new solutions to manage the situation: 

  1. New Covid-19 Interview Filter

  2. 24-hour integration PSAP, 

  3. new e-learning for medical dispatchers.

  4. A new management platform

NEW COVID-19 INTERVIEW FILTER

An overwhelming amount of calls were received during the peak period of the Covid-19 crisis. In Lombardy alone, PSAPs went from 10.000 to 50.000 calls per day. The average waiting time increased from 3 seconds to 10 minutes. 

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Beta 80 supported the Lombardy Public Safety Agency (AREU) in adapting the interview filter to decrease resopnse times. AREU needed an advanced screening to determine urgent cases and avoid slow processing. Because of our flexible CAD platform, it took us less than 6 hours to equip all regional 112 PSAPs with a new interview filter to define incident severity and determine which cases to forward to the Medical Covid-19 PSAP hotline. 

No development was required, just a new configuration, our CAD software is flexible enough to be ready to face extreme situations, like a pandemic outbreak. The situation vastly improved: the response time was reduced to 12 seconds on average.

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NEW PSAP IN 24 HOURS

An overwhelming number of 112 calls were for the emergency medical service. The second level medical PSAPs suffered an overload, with an increase of Covid requests on top of the regular emergencies and the non-critical cases. 

Calls needed to be classified so dispatchers could work on the highest priorities. Beta 80 worked on three new PSAPs, organizing activities on severity levels: calls were redirected to the appropriate structure, depending on the screening. One PSAPs served for COVID-19 information, responding to a toll-free number. The numbers were unprecedented, in one day it could receive up to 48.000 calls. Setting up the platform took less than a day: our CAD is 100% web-based. Deploying extra PSAPs and installation was simple: new workstations and user profiles were all we needed.

The Beta 80 web-based platform, decreased ambulance dispatch by 15% thanks to accurate incident qualification.

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E-LEARNING FOR DISPATCHERS

To run the new toll-free number and the medical PSAPs, AREU also needed to train new personnel.

With the country on lockdown, we needed to find a new, remote way to train the medical staff: the call takers need to be fully operative in the shortest time possible. We rapidly re-organized resources, enabling a unique e-learning process for medical dispatchers and PSAP incident managers.

Thanks to the user-oriented CAD approach, state-of-the-art GUI design, and clear process, the volunteer staff learned how to use the platdorm in just a few hours.

training new psap staff

COVID-19 MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

The outbreak stressed the need to improve collaboration among Emergency Services, Civil Protection, hospitals, municipalities, and regional and central government.

Beta 80 developed a Covid-19 Management Portal to easily cooperate using the same tools and information workflow. All stakeholders provided the structured data of patients’ swab analysis; this information, protected by privacy, is used for the detailed daily reports which influence national safety ordinances. In an outbreak scenario, Beta 80 focused on fast data sharing in a highly collaborative platform, to accelerate the response.

The COVID-19 management portal holds a detailed record of the situation and offers a precise status to keep citizens inform of the evolving of the situation.

information psap covid

Luca Bergonzi, Beta 80 Executive, interviews Alberto Zoli, AREU General Manager

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