Helping the FDNY to optimise resources
and save lives

Modernising FDNY’s 9-1-1 Digital Technology System to optimise resources, save time and save lives

The background

In 2016, the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), the largest fire department in the United States and the second largest in the world, sought the expertise of Infinity CCS to design a solution to help enhance and optimize response times for its 1.4 million emergency calls a year.

The challenges and requirements

FDNY was reliant on an old triage system, established in the 1980s, that required dispatchers to follow a paper-based system to determine how critical each medical call was in order to dispatch the correct ambulance.

Instead they wanted to introduce a flexible, intelligent triage system that would deliver powerful data insights to aid continuous improvement. They realized that computerized 9-1-1 system would improve response times, data tracking and dispatch training, as well as accuracy of dispatching the correct resources for each call type.

The solution

Infinity CCS was able to exploit their 20+ years’ experience designing world-class technology for contact centers to engineer a solution that meets the needs of the FDNY. Computerizing the FDNY’s 9-1-1 systems has meant improvements in accuracy and speed of response as well as unformity of response amongst call-takers.

The software is able to collate the answers to the questions call-takers ask and compile all that data. “We identified some questions that were creating inefficiencies. We were asking questions that weren’t critical. We were able to say, ‘Let’s ask a more important question first,’ so we can speed up our ability to triage, make a determination of the type of patient we have, and send the correct resources,” said Commissioner Thomson .

Integration with FDNY’s CAD systems gets the right emergency resource on the road as quickly as possible and ensures first responders have the correct information every time.

This software is efficient and fast and allows our efficiency and accuracy to go hand in hand,” said Chief Napoli. “I already have seen that this product is saving lives. This software has made it easier so that our ARDs don’t have to remember what the next step is, what they have to do and where they need to go.”