Report Cites Problems with Portland, Ore. Emergency Center

July 14--Emergency 911 operators who work in Portland's Bureau of Emergency Communications and handle calls for Multnomah County do not receive sufficient ongoing training, according to a city audit released today.

The training that dispatchers receive meets the minimum required by state standards, the audit said, but "it does not provide sufficient exposure to all necessary skills."

When BOEC dispatch procedures are updated, for example, copies are distributed to emergency operators but the bureau doesn't ensure the staff understands them.

For example, "operators said they did not have time to review new procedures for suicide calls," the audit said.

Those procedures, for example, were written to help reduce Portland police encounters with people who are in mental health crisis but do not present an immediate danger, and would direct dispatchers to connect the callers to the county's mental health crisis line or another community agency for help.

The Bureau of Emergency Communications answers 911 calls within Multnomah County and dispatches police, fire and medical calls to all public safety agencies in the county. It operates under a $19 million budget, with 111 emergency call-takers, dispatchers and trainees, the audit said.

The city audit also criticized the bureau for not addressing complaints about the handling of 911 calls with a broader look at whether there's a pattern of problems that need to be addressed. Instead, the bureau tends to review complaints on individual operator's performance, the audit found.

It states that "...there is no overall tracking of complaint trends in order to evaluate systemic problems with call handling."

Lisa Turley, director of the emergency communications bureau, said the bureau needs more funding and staff to address the problems identified by the audit.

She said her bureau budget for fiscal year 2013-14 reduces staff by three full-time employees, leaving 107 staff and 11 supervisors. She said the appropriate staffing level would be 120 employees, and 14 supervisors.

With inadequate staff, Turley argued that it's impossible to remove 911 call-takers or dispatchers from their shifts so they could attend special training.

"Unfortunately, when there are barely enough people to cover the floor, we cannot schedule time off the floor," Turley wrote in a written response to the audit.

The bureau's workload has increased over the last two years, the audit found. The number of calls and radio dispatches per operator has gone up from 8,485 in fiscal year 2011, to 10,631 in fiscal year 2012.

Commissioner Steve Novick, who now oversees the bureau, said the city must provide more funding for the bureau to address the audit's concerns. He said he will push for greater funding from the City Council during next year's budget process.

However, Novick said he disagreed with the auditor's conclusions that BOEC is not tracking complaints and working to learn from its mistakes. Novick said since he was assigned the bureau last month, he's received a weekly report about call-handling complaints and how the bureau responded.

"The Bureau analyzes all complaints to look for themes and assesses how best to address systemic issues," Novick countered, in his written response to the audit.

A BOEC employee satisfaction survey, conducted in March 2012, showed that questions related to the bureau's learning environment received the lowest satisfaction rating.

The audit also found that managers' expectations for what call takers and dispatchers need to ask callers don't necessarily reflect what the bureau's written procedures demand. For example, while procedures direct operators to get an address from callers, some callers don't know the address of certain locations, such has Lloyd Center mall.

"Reducing the number of questions the operator asks may significantly decrease the call processing and dispatch time," the audit said.

The bureau aims to answer 97 percent of emergency calls within 20 seconds. Currently, the bureau answers 96 percent of its emergency calls within that time, said Laura Wolfe, a bureau spokeswoman.

In her response, Turley said she was disappointed the audit did not note that the bureau has started to evaluate employees based on the results of their actions and customer service, and less on whether they followed procedure exactly as written. And, she said the bureau has worked to reduce on-the-job "bullying," which was a problem identified in a 2002 city audit.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Copyright 2013 - The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.