Careers in BCEHS Dispatch Operations Centres offer challenging work in a fast-paced environment. BCEHS has three dispatch operations centres located in Vancouver, Victoria and Kamloops operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As an Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) you will expand on your knowledge and skills from call-taking in order to plan and manage ambulance responses. Based in a Dispatch Operations Centre, this role involves prioritizing and dispatching 9-1-1 calls for basic life support and advanced life support ambulances as well as communicating with other first responder agencies.
EMDs provide vital information to paramedic crews and hospitals. When working as a dispatcher, your responsibility will be to ensure the right people and resources arrive on scene. This is accomplished by sending the appropriate emergency response team/ ambulance to the scene as fast as possible, coordinating with other first responder agencies (such as RCMP, search and rescue) , and communicating with other EMDs and EMCTs on your team to ensure the best patient care possible.
While the crew is on its way, you will still be passing on further essential details to paramedics so they can immediately attend to the patient when they arrive on scene.
The pace in the dispatch operations centre can be extremely fast – but at all times our focus is on delivering best patient care.
One of the key qualifications to become an Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) is to be a qualified Emergency Medical Call Taker (EMCT) and hold the MPDS (Medical Priority Dispatch System) certification. As such this EMD role is an excellent career growth opportunity for EMCTs.
Speed, accuracy, multi-tasking, initiative, using your critical thinking skills and keen problem solving skills are vital to be successful in this role.
