NEXT GEN QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR PSAP Chris Gallahan – NICE Systems May 2014

Why QA Current QA Methods Next Gen QA Solution Example of a Next Gen QA Application

WHY QA

Purpose of QA  Promote service excellence  Adherence to standards, procedures and policies  Consistent performance and level of service In the QA process we want to evaluate the operator’s strength as well as identify areas for improvement

 CALEA Public Safety Communications Accreditation Program  APCO Project 33 Training Program Certification  IAED – International Academies of Emergency Dispatch  Total Response Accreditation by PowerPhone Standards/Accreditations

CALEA Certification and QA  CALEA Public Safety Communications Accreditation Program  CALEA standards relative to QA require:  Evaluate both call taking and dispatch processes  Document the QA evaluations  Enable the operator to feedback and comment on their evaluations  Generate reporting on evaluations  Benefits of the CALEA accreditation:  Management model for agency administration and operations  Better trained public safety personnel  Can limit an agency's liability and risk exposure  Greater accountability within the communications center  Verification of excellence  More details:

APCO Project 33  APCO P33 Agency Training Program Certification is a formal mechanism for public safety agencies to certify their training programs as meeting APCO American National Standards (ANS)  The purpose of APCO P33 is to identify minimum training requirements for the public safety telecommunicator  Require agencies to meet or exceed the APCO ANS : Minimum Training Standards for Public Safety TelecommunicatorsAPCO ANS : Minimum Training Standards for Public Safety Telecommunicators

Other Accreditation Example: IAED  AQUA is a QA application by Priority Dispatch  Bundled with their flagship product ProQA  Evaluating on calls only  Audio call in not available via AQUA  AQUA is positioned to help with accreditation from IAED  IAED = International Academies of Emergency Dispatch

 Developed by NENA Development Standards Committee Quality Assurance Working Group  Defines recommended minimum components of QA/QI program  Created to assist with the establishment, implementation and maintenance of a QA/QI program  Defines R&R of the Agency and the Evaluator  To be approved by APCO Standards Development Committee and released within few weeks Upcoming NENA/APCO Standards for QA/QI

 CALEA Public Safety Communications Accreditation Program  APCO Project 33 Training Program Certification  IAED – International Academies of Emergency Dispatch  NENA’s Recommended QA/QI Standards (to be released)  Main Requirements/Recommendations Common to all:  Establish fair and consistent evaluation program  Evaluate both call taking and dispatch processes  Document the QA evaluations  Enable the operator to feedback and comment their evaluations  Generate reporting on evaluations Standards and Accreditations

 Adherence to protocols and standard operating procedures  Overall performance of each operator  Customer service  Effective use of resources  Quality of operation as a whole What to QA

 Seamless/Non-intrusive  Random/Fair  On-going  Consistent  Comprehensive  Documented  Automated Attributes of an Effective QA Program

METHODS OF QA

 Manual  Semi automated  Automated  Next Gen QA Methods of QA Programs

 Word/Excel-based evaluation forms  Search and replay call  Live monitoring  Advantages:  Easy to learn  Low investment  Doesn’t require additional application  Disadvantages:  Cumbersome process  Live monitoring limited to evaluator’s shifts  Hard to follow consistent and fair selection  Highly time consuming reporting Manual QA Process

 Automated form based but not necessarily tied to audio recording  Doesn’t include screen and other media  Provided by non-logging vendors  Advantages:  Procedure specific, e.g. medical dispatch  Built for accreditation – e.g. IAED, Total Response  Disadvantages:  The user has to deal with two applications: reply and evaluation  Manual selection of calls – could be perceived as inconsistent and unfair  Limited to call-taker (phone only) evaluation Semi Automated

 Based/built for Commercial Call Center  Limited to single call – call-taker phone interaction  Partial compliance with QA accreditations/standards  Screen recording is optional, limited to single screen  Advantages:  Allows random selection of calls  Complete evaluation while listening to the call and watching screen activity  Includes reporting capability  Disadvantages:  Not comprehensive – no way to look at the entire incident handling process  No way to include multimedia incident data  Generally, not designed to comply with specific PS accreditation or standard Automated

NEXT GEN QA SOLUTION

Next Gen QA  Designed bottom up for Public Safety environments  Compliance with CALEA, APCO P33 and the upcoming NENA Standards  Tied to the incident communication capture system: phone, radio, text, screen, video, GIS, etc.

Next Gen QA Requirements  Call selection  Manual – important for high attention calls  Truly random  Flexible – minimum number of calls per incident type, user, etc.  Complete incident capture and review  Capture and synch all incident related voice recordings: phone and radio  Capture and synch operator’s screen  Assess operator’s quality of incident handling involving all forms of incoming data  Targeted coaching and training  Easily pin point knowledge gaps, e.g.: text interaction, reference to GIS data, etc.  Provide needs-based coaching and training to groups or specific operators  Ensure operator on track acquiring new skills and adhering to evolving procedures

Next Gen QA Requirements - Screen Recording  Capture all screens of operator’s workstation  Compliments entire incident evaluation  What action did the operator take on CAD / CPE / other? Operator’s Workstation Replay Workstation

Next Gen QA Requirements - Reporting  Activity reporting – insight into the volume of phone and radio traffic  Data to support staffing decisions  QA reporting - quality performance and trending each individual staff member  Measure performance against KPIs to maintain QA and Training accreditations

 Supervisors and Training Managers:  Reconstruct and evaluate  Identify knowledge gap  Provide proper training  Operator:  ‘how am I doing?’  Review evaluations  Feedback and sign-off  PSAP Managers:  Periodic reports to gauge overall team’s and center’s performance  Take improvement measures Workflow that Involves All Users Call / Incident Evaluation Operator Review Management Reports

Hosted/Cloud-based QA Solution QA & Screen Recording Quality Assurance Audio Recording & Analytics Operational Applications PSAP APSAP BPoliceFire DepartmentEMS Multi-Agency Datacenter

EXAMPLE OF A NEXT GEN QA APPLICATION 25

Automatic Selection of Calls for QA

Single Call/Call Taking Evaluation

Evaluation of Incident as a Whole Phone call and related dispatch radio Fill evaluation while listening

Multimedia Incident Evaluation

Operator’s Feedback

Flexible Evaluation Form Design

Reporting Capability

 Reduced turnover  Empowered call taker/dispatcher  Increased Professionalism  Adherence to existing and evolving protocols (e.g. Text-to-911)  Effectively and efficiently run PSAP The Value of Next Gen QA Program

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Q&A 39

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