D.C. leaders are finally sharing details about the problems they've been dealing with at the city's 911 call center, the Office of Unified Communications.
This WTOP file photo shows a fire engine and ambulance in D.C. (WTOP/Dave Dildine) This WTOP file photo shows a fire engine and ambulance in D.C. (WTOP/Dave Dildine)
Nearly two and a half weeks after D.C.'s 911 system went down again — this time coinciding with the death of a baby whose parents had trouble calling an ambulance at their apartment — city leaders are finally starting to share details about the problems they've been dealing with.
The city released a full timeline of events Monday morning that led to a rescue dispatch to an apartment complex next to the National Zoo, and acknowledged that the Unified Communications Office, which handles 911 calls, has been plagued by similar issues for months.
In fact, since December of last year, there have been 18 incidents involving at least partial failures of computer-aided dispatch. The city said six such incidents have occurred since May 21, including one on Aug. 2 when an information technology employee made a mistake and forced through a change that affected all computers involved in dispatch.
Not all outages affected the entire dispatch system — sometimes just a few computers were affected — but eight of the 18 outages had more widespread effects, including an incident on August 2 that caused dispatchers' screens to go blank for two hours as they tried to coordinate emergency responses.
The dispatcher then had to rely on pen and paper to compile the details and hand them off to another dispatcher from the appropriate agency on the other side of the room. This is trained quarterly, with the most recent training for this situation taking place in June.
But Heather McGuffin, who oversees OUC, said the situation was still chaotic that afternoon when it all came crashing down.
“Switching from automated to manual is something we're definitely going to get better at going forward,” she said after the press conference. “Just as FEMS and MPD rely heavily on technology, we rely heavily on technology, so these are things we need to practice more and we're committed to doing that as part of our paramedic leadership going forward.”
City leaders blame technology
While that describes one incident, city leaders say the biggest obstacle to reliable 911 service is the technology the city uses in its daily operations.
City Administrator Kevin Donahue said essentially the frequent outages had nothing to do with a single, solvable problem, but rather that the 1.8 million 911 calls the city receives each year were proving to be too much for the computers, servers and other technology hardware the city relies on to run its systems.
“So we're currently in the process of procuring and replacing some of the equipment,” Donahue said.
Those improvements are earmarked for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, but the city has already started spending the money to get ahead of needed improvements.
“We are looking at how much progress we can make by expediting procurement and focusing on this project as our most important piece of work,” he said.
The problem of a shortage of personnel
Staffing shortages were also an issue on Aug. 2, when the parents of a 5-month-old baby called 911 and waited more than a minute to get through.
But McGuffin said OUC is working to hire more people to fill dispatcher positions and the number of vacancies is steadily decreasing, and he said there have been more than 400 new applications since it was announced last week that dispatchers who show up to work scheduled shifts would receive a bonus of up to $800 a month.
She also expects to see fewer dispatchers working long shifts, sometimes as long as 18 hours, and said it's not out of the question that current 12-hour shifts could be shortened to eight or 10 hours as staffing increases.
Regarding the Aug. 2 incident, it was discovered that the first call to 911 from the family of a 5-month-old baby was placed at 12:39 p.m. and someone was put on hold for 54 seconds before hanging up. However, the call was made from a cell phone with no cell plan. All phones, with or without a cell plan, should be able to call 911. McGuffin said no matter how long you are on hold, the next call to 911 will not be in line, so hanging up is not advisable.
“When you call 911, don't hang up,” she said. “The most important thing you can do when you're in an emergency is to stay on the phone.”
Detailed timeline: “Totally appropriate”
According to a timeline provided by the city, an ambulance first dispatched to the Connecticut Street apartment had already responded to another call, but OUC didn't know about it because its computer systems were down. But that didn't mean the child, who wasn't breathing, didn't get help.
Fire Chief John Donnelly said officers already on scene arrived less than four and a half minutes after the initial 911 call, and someone was already administering CPR to the baby when police officers arrived, and an AED was also used minutes later to administer an electric shock to the baby's heart in an attempt to get it back into rhythm.
He also said that it was procedure to perform CPR on the child in the apartment before taking him to the hospital by ambulance because care is better and more effective when stable. Although there was confusion and delays in getting ambulances to the scene, DC Fire and EMS indicated that personnel did everything they could, and in a timely manner.
“I have thoroughly investigated the call,” Donnelly said. “The care was entirely appropriate, so despite the challenges here, I do not believe the quality of care provided has deteriorated.”
Dr. David Wittberg, acting medical director for the D.C. Fire Department, said the child was in cardiac arrest and had no pulse from the moment paramedics arrived.
The city also released a 22-point improvement plan for the Office of Unified Communications, which focuses on upgraded and modernized technology as well as improvements to the behind-the-scenes IT department.
“We're going to make this public and we're going to take responsibility,” Donahue said.
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