austrian leitstelle. workplace of a dispatcher. all emergency calls, regardless of the emergency number on which they originate, are routed to dispatch centres; in german leitstelle. until the year 2000 it was very common that every district had its own dispatch centre which, in a way, was quite ineffective. at present more and more trans-regional dispatch centres are being built. that means that all 144 calls in styria, for example, are routed to the same dispatch centre in graz no matter where in styria the caller is located. the same trend can be seen in other federal states. a system similar to the u.s.-based 9-1-1 public safety answering point concept is not being used due to the significantly different nature of the calls for ems, the fire brigade or the police. once a call via the local emergency number is placed, a call taker will answer and ask the caller about the nature of the emergency. while the caller is being interviewed about call specifics, the call taker is already working on the computer, which will provide prompt questions, provide advice, and suggest response resources for this emergency. whilst the call taker is still talking to the caller a dispatcher will already look up the ambulance which is the closest to the scene and dispatch it. this computer system, while operating in german, is more or less similar to the ampds algorithm used by emergency medical dispatchers in the united states but varies from one federal state to the other. to illustrate, a call is received in the dispatch center about a possibly unconscious person. the call taker will immediately identify the call location, and will then ask further questions, in order to assess precipitating symptoms, specific location, and any special circumstances (no house number, a neighbor is calling, etc.). while this interview is occurring, the call taker will enter the command bewusstlose person (unconscious person) into the dispatch computer, resulting in an automatic suggestion to dispatch of a rtw (emergency ambulance) or nktw and a nef (emergency physician car). upon entering the address of the patient, the computer will look for the emergency vehicles closest to this address. now the dispatcher can send the whole package over the air and those two vehicles are alarmed, similar to computer-assisted dispatch (cad) in the united states. whilst the vehicles are being alarmed by the dispatcher, the call taker may remain on the line with the caller, providing telephone advice or assistance until the ems resources arrive on the scene. while still on the line with the caller the dispatcher is able to guide the ambulance to the scene and provide the crew with additional and more precise information about the incident. this, of course, happens without any notice of the caller and will help to get the ems resources on scene more quickly. average response times apart from burgenland the maximum response time (the maximum time in which an ambulance must be on scene) is not governed in austria. the red cross, however, follows the self-imposed policy that every place next to a street has to be reached in at least 15 minutes in 95% of all cases. these requirements are met in most cases but one has to keep in mind, that response times differ very much depending on whether the incident occurred in a rural area or in a city as ems stations are mostly located in cities. in cities the average response time is between five and ten minutes, in rural areas it is about eight to 15 minutes. notes and references "kontakt zur berufsrettung wien - ma 70, aufgaben, organisation". "information about the micu stationed in graz". roteskreuz.at. information about krankentransports by the austrian red cross "coronavirus: kaum wartezeit bei gesundheitshotline 1450 in nö" (in german). 17 march 2020. retrieved 2020-03-27. "sanitätergesetz". franz, dr. alexander. "ögan". www.oegan.at. emergency medical services around the worldemergency medical services by country austria australia brazil canada finland france germany hong kong iceland ireland israel italy netherlands new zealand norway palestine poland portugal russia spain south africa sri lanka ukraine united kingdom united states paramedics by country australia canada germany ireland united kingdom united states this article is issued from wikipedia. the text is licensed under creative commons - attribution - sharealike. additional terms may apply for the media files.