41 Errors Linked to Computerized Dispatch System

A Los Angeles County Fire Department investigation found 41 problem incidents last year in the operation of a new $27-million computer-aided dispatching system, according to a report to the Board of Supervisors.

The incidents involved human errors, problems with a geographic database and computer problems, according to a seven-page document by Chief P. Michael Freeman.

The document did not say whether anyone involved in the incidents suffered or died as a result of delays in response time. “It seems to me that one of the complaints about a delayed response was on one person who died,” Chief Deputy Earl Fordham said. But he said he could not be certain.

The report, dated Jan. 7, concluded “that each one of the documented 41 cases has been thoroughly analyzed by command and control management and corrective measures had been instituted.”

The investigation was requested Nov. 15 by Supervisor Michael Antonovich. It was prompted by a Times article that documented several cases in which rescue personnel were sent to the wrong addresses through dispatching errors. The errors delayed medical treatment by several minutes in some instances.

One woman suffering seizures in a doctor’s office in Lancaster had to wait an estimated 30 minutes for help because the rescue team was sent to the wrong town. On another occasion, a 24-minute delay in getting to a fire resulted from fire crews being sent to the wrong street in the Antelope Valley.

The county replaced its 1970s computer system last year. The new one does not rely on voice communication. It performs functions through written commands sent by computer. Dispatchers give orders by typing on a keyboard, although they can speak by two-way radio if necessary.

The county also consolidated its three dispatching centers at one location in East Los Angeles and switched from firefighter dispatchers to civilians.

The changes increased the potential for errors, critics said. They predicted problems in the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, far-flung areas that once had their own dispatch center.

The county’s own investigation showed that 22 of the 41 incidents uncovered by the investigators occurred in those valleys.

Thirty-one incidents were requests for emergency medical service. Three were fire-related. The remaining seven were non-emergencies.

The report said efforts are being made to improve performance in all three areas. Dispatchers are receiving regular training and extra personnel have been assigned to ferret out errors in the geographic database. Basic system errors have been “dramatically reduced in the last 90 days,” the report said.

Lori Howard, the public safety deputy for Antonovich, said his initial response was positive. She added that “we’d like to see a status report in 30 days to see how they’ve done.”

Howard also said the department should consider hiring dispatchers from the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys to handle calls in those areas. She said fire officials should produce a breakdown showing the outcome of each incident to determine whether anyone died as a result of delays.

The county says the new system has shaved an average of two minutes off emergency response times. Fordham said some of the 41 incidents also could have resulted from wrong information phoned to authorities.

The report noted that with 41 errors out of 155,000 calls, the dispatch system has a 99.97% rate of correct responses. But it said investigators did not go through all the calls. They simply looked into incidents that had previously come to the department’s attention.