New dispatch methods speed up Nampa emergency responses
Mar 31, 2025
Nampa first responders are speeding up their response times thanks to efficiencies made in February.Dispatchers are now sending crews to emergency calls by starting with what they call the chief complaint and a professional vers
ion of PulsePoint.That PulsePoint notification actually goes out often before the dispatcher gets on the radio or the tones are out to the station, said Chris King, deputy fire chief of operations. So those two things in total have averaged about 90 seconds in uptick or improvements in the response of our responders out to the community.Not every call is a matter of life and death, but those 90 seconds could truly be life-saving.Because we know the brain can only survive four to six minutes without oxygen. So the bodys obviously compensating for that period of time, but the longer someone goes without oxygen, then their outcome could be worse, said Ann Lempesis, fire captain of Station 1. So, I mean, a minute, 60 seconds, 90 seconds, two minutes actually, yes, its life or death in certain instances.Phones by their side and notifications enabled, first responders can start gearing up to respond before theyre formally assigned to a call.If were like at the dinner table and someones phone will ding, its like, Oh, someones getting a call. Oh, thats us. And they have not dispatched anyone yet, Lempesis said.With a crew already on the way, dispatchers can continue gathering information from the caller. Those updates are pushed to their PulsePoint and apparatus computers.Itll give me information that the dispatcher has inputted into the system from the information they got from the caller, Lempesis said. So Im going to scroll down and see what type of call it is.This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. ...read more read less