Code of Maine Rules
65 - DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
625 - EMERGENCY SERVICES COMMUNICATIONS BUREAU
Chapter 5 - STANDARDS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF EMERGENCY FIRE DISPATCH PROTOCOLS
Section 625-5-8 - QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (QA/QI)
Current through 2024-38, September 18, 2024
A. Overview
Each EFDA shall establish a continuous quality assurance, improvement and management program. The Bureau will establish a single QA/QI Program to be used by EFD As and EFDs. Any person engaged in a QA/QI review of EFDs must be properly certified by the protocol vendor as an EFD case reviewer.
B. Responsibilities
EFDAs must:
C. Levels
Each QA/QI program must comprise the following levels:
D. Scope
The goal of QA/QI is to ensure effective and efficient Emergency Fire Dispatch. Each EFD employed by an EFDA must be regularly and routinely evaluated to ensure compliance with Emergency Fire Dispatch protocol and operating policies and procedures. Evaluation, using the selected protocol vendor's standards and evaluation instruments, must be qualitative and quantitative and must include retrospective review of non-edited logged recordings of Emergency Fire Dispatch calls and any associated documentation. Cases chosen for evaluation must be randomly selected and equitably representative of each EFD's work.
The following variables must be tracked for each EFD:
Data must be maintained electronically at each EFDA and must include:
EFDA's must report compliance results monthly to the Bureau in the format requested by the Bureau by the 15th day of the month for the previous month.
Challenging callers ( e.g.,hysterical, speech or hearing impaired, developmentally disabled, non-English speakers, etc.) and persons requesting Emergency Fire Dispatch via text message are not exceptions to the Emergency Fire Dispatch requirements. Challenging callers must receive the same systematized and comprehensive approach to Emergency Fire Dispatch as any other caller.
EFDAs will conduct random case reviews of a minimum number of Emergency Fire Dispatch cases according to the following table:
|
Yearly Number of 9-1-1 Calls |
Estimated Yearly Fire Calls |
Monthly Call Review as Second Discipline |
|
0 to 10,000 |
0 to 1,000 |
30 |
|
10,001 to 50,000 |
1,001 to 5,000 |
61 |
|
50,001 to 150,000 |
5,001 to 15,000 |
65 |
The number of case reviews in the above table assumes that each EFDA is also providing Emergency Medical Dispatch Protocols and assumes fire calls account for 10% of the total number of 9-1-1 calls.
Every EFDA must have a Focused Call Review Plan. The structure of the Focused Call Review Plan should clearly indicate how calls will be selected for a given month. Focus reviews should address data that cannot be captured during random case review such as, but not limited to:
