Quest for Quality

1. Quest for Quality Ronald Bonneau, ENP National Emergency Number Association

2. “He that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.”Benjamin Franklin

3. Are You Psychic, Telepathic? If the answer is no, then the only mechanism that management has to be cognizant of the quality, or lack thereof, within their workforce is to regularly and routinely conduct quality assurance reviews! QA is the Third Piece of the Puzzle

4. Objectives of a QA Program • Accountability • Determine areas of concern • Mentoring • Motivate improvements • Regular feedback helps retention • Document, Document, Document • “The more is less” principle doesn’t work!

5. Position and Discipline Monitoring Consistently administered and randomly selected review of recordings – 360 Degree Approach of End to End Process • Call Taking and Dispatching for Police Incidents • Call Taking and Dispatching for Fire Incidents • Call Taking and Dispatching for EMS Incidents

6. Quality Assurance Categories Call Taking • Interview Questions - WWWWW • CAD Entry Skills • Telephone Protocol Skills • Supervisor’s Overview

7. Quality Assurance Categories Dispatching • Assignment of Call – Prioritization, Type • Summarization • Information Flow • Radio Protocol Skills • Supervisor’s Overview

8. Selection of Evaluators – Critical Component to Process • Supervisory personnel who are well versed in your agency’s protocols as well as your policies and procedures and a willingness to set a positive example. • Management staff who are dedicated to the betterment of your agency and a desire to be truthful, honest, fair and ethical. • It is not advisable to have line level staff members evaluating their peers. • Minimize Rating Bias

9. Supervisors’ Responsibilities • Each supervisor is responsible for doing a minimum of two quality assurance reviews per week for each staff member assigned to their shift. • If this is followed, at the end of a 12 month period, a minimum of 104 quality assurance reviews will become a quantifiable basis for an objective and factual performance evaluation.

10. Senior Management’s Responsibilities – Evaluating the Evaluators! • Monthly calibration of all evaluators is paramount to success by ensuring that the graders are on the “same page”. • Random checks of individual evaluator’s reviews for compliance with agency’s mission statement. • Clarifying high and low range scores is important • Identifiable issues provided to CTOs for targeted training. • Senior management staff members perform additional reviews for unusual or critical incidents, as well as all complaint based inquiries.

11. “Evaluate what you want - because what gets measured, gets produced!” James Belasco

12. RECOMMENDED STANDARDFOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AQUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM FOR PUBLIC SAFETY ANSWERING POINTS Version 5, June 2014

13. COLLABORATIVEEFFORT • Denise Amber Lee Foundation • APCO • NENA • IAED • POWERPHONE • PSAP LEADERS

14. QA Standards Working Group • Eric Parry, ENP, Chair - NENA Education Advisory Board • Carol Adams, RPL - Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, Virginia • Ron Bonneau, ENP – Kent County Dispatch Authority, Grand Rapids, Michigan • Angela Bowen - APCO International • John Ferraro, ENP - West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center, River Forest, IL • Rick Erickson, ENP - The Woodlands Fire Department / Montgomery County Fire Communications • Brent Finster - Cayman Islands Government Department of Public Safety Communications • Jerry Turk - PowerPhone, Inc. • Mark Lee - Denise Amber Lee Foundation • Steve Leese - APCO International • Crystal McDuffie, RPL, ENP - APCO International • Sherrill Ornberg, ENP, RPL - Denise Amber Lee Foundation • Carlynn Page - International Academies of Emergency Dispatch • Ty Wooten - NENA  • Keith Simpkins - Department of Emergency Services, Chester County, PA •  Kevin Willett - PSTC - Public Safety Training Consultants • Lindsay Yeager - Department of Emergency Services, Chester County, PA

15. OVERVIEW • Starting Point for Any Size PSAP • No-Cost • Voluntary – Not Mandatory • Easy (and Not Easy) to Implement • Complete System for all Disciplines • Self Scoring Spreadsheets (EMS, Fire, Law) • Vendor/Product neutral • Due for Publishing 4th Q 2014

16. SECTIONS • Introduction • Scope • Purpose • Definitions • Agency Responsibilities • Duties and Responsibilities of the Quality Assurance Evaluator (QAE)

17. SECTIONS (cont’d) • Required Components of a QA/QI Program • Written Directives • Case Review Criteria • Mentoring • Monitoring

18. SECTIONS(cont’d) • Review Process Requirements • Call Selection Criteria • Minimum of 2% Random • Define Exceptions – Mitigating Circumstance such as loss of life, use of deadly force, exceptions are QA. • Timeliness - Recent • Review • Documentation • Reporting 18

19. SECTIONS (cont’d) • Review Process Requirements (cont’d) • Acknowledging Great Work • Recommendations for Improvement (QI) • Feed Back Criteria • Action Plans (as required) 19

20. Supporting Addendums • Customizing the Case Evaluation Templates • Sample Case Evaluation Templates (Excel) will be on the NENA website – Auto Calculate • Quality Assurance Sample Guidelines for EMS, Fire, Police Events from End to End • QA Process Overview • QA Process Flow Chart – Pictorial of QA process

23. Questions?

24. Ronald Bonneau, ENP National Emergency Number Association bonns3@comcast.net 708-243-9495