AMBULANCE DISPATCHER

About the role

The position involves dispatching ambulances, vans, and other vehicles to transport patients to and from County and non-County hospitals and institutions. The role also includes coordinating ambulance services, handling emergencies, and training dispatchers.

Responsibilities

• Determines which patients to transport separately and the priority for picking up patients at hospitals, convalescent care facilities, and patients' residences for transportation by ambulance.
• Determines which calls to assign private ambulance companies, considering factors such as the patient's diagnosis, trip distance, availability of County ambulances, and the need to use County ambulances to transport several patients on each trip.
• Groups calls to or from the same geographical area in Los Angeles County and surrounding counties into trips with varying numbers of patients, depending upon their diagnoses, and assigns trips to ambulance personnel.
• Arranges, coordinates, and prioritizes transportation calls that are received by the Central Dispatch Office (CDO) of the EMS Ambulance Services section.
• Enters data for tracking and adjudication of billing purposes. Performs data entry and uses computer equipment.
• Communicates with doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff to confirm or verify instructions in the transport of patients.
• Decides whether or not to have a patient picked up by an ambulance en route by reviewing the routes and departure times of ambulances to estimate if any are near the patient's location and notifies the crew of an ambulance in the vicinity to pick up the patient.
• Dispatches County or private ambulances to a breakdown or accident involving a County ambulance, or other transportation vehicle when necessary and sends a tow truck for the disabled County vehicle.
• Trains dispatchers and other related personnel in the dispatch of ambulances, vans, and other vehicles to transport patients to and from County and non-County hospitals and institutions as assigned.
• In the event of a major emergency or disaster, participates as a member of the Departmental Operations Center as needed.
• Transmits and receives coded, conventional messages and overflow calls via voice and video communication links with private contract ambulance providers.
• Uses telephones, radios, and computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems extensively to coordinate ambulance services.
• When County resources are unavailable or lack the required capabilities (e.g., Critical Care Transport [CCT] or Advanced Life Support [ALS] level services), arranges for transportation through contracted private ambulance providers.
• Selects and notifies the appropriate contracted private ambulance company for each transport assignment, ensuring a balanced distribution of calls among providers; and evaluates staffing levels and available vehicle resources to determine the need for overtime coverage when transportation personnel are absent.
• Calls in the appropriate relief crew employees, if needed.

Requirements

• One (1) year of experience at the level of Ambulance Medical Technician providing assistance to patients being transported to and from hospitals or other medical facilities.
• Experience at the level of Ambulance Medical Technician is defined as attending to patients being transported to and from County or non-County hospitals or institutions by ambulance on emergency and non-emergency calls and is responsible for the patients' safety en-route.
• Other medical facilities are defined as an urgent care center or a clinic.
• No out of class experience or withholds are allowed for this examination.
• Required experience must be fully met at the time of filing and clearly indicated on the application.

Desirable Qualifications

• Six (6) months of experience performing one or more of the following: Experience dispatching ambulances using Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) software, Experience in computer data entry, A valid and active certificate in any of the following courses: Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Certificate, Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Certificate, Emergency Telecommunicators (ETC) Certificate, Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) software is a digital system used by emergency services and other dispatch-driven organizations to manage and optimize the process of receiving, processing, and responding to calls for service.