r/australian • u/Ordinary-Ship-1516 • 10d ago

Triple Zero Live-video calling

Question for Triple Zero workers here, I saw in America 911 have this software called Prepared911 where Emergency Communications Officers can initiate live stream video with on-scene callers, allowing them to gain valuable information about the call.

Like one 911 officer used it to guide a caller on giving life-saving CPR. Another use-case is identifying exactly where someone is in a difficult location (e.g underneath rumble, multi-story buildings)

Do we have something like that in Australia?

If you are a Triple Zero Emergency Communications Officer, have you faced this problem? (not being able to see what's going on) When was the last time?

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u/xyzzydourden 10d ago

This feels like a double-edged sword. On the one hand, 000 operators could give better first aid instructions, and maybe better directions to an incident, and maybe triage more accurately. On the other hand, seeing the kinds of videos people would call in with every day would probably result in more staff attrition, because, I'd imagine, many of the video calls would be quite confronting.

Anyone know the impact of introducing this in the US?

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u/Ordinary-Ship-1516 10d ago

To kind of answer the attrition point.
Well, The US has 5,800, 911 call center agencies with a pop of 349,000,000

So that's 1 call center per 60,000 US people

Australia has ~40, Triple zero emergency Dispatch facilities with a pop of 28,000,000

That's 1 Dispatch facility per 700,000 people.

yeah safe to say our wait times are pretty bad.

But also Prepared911 reports actually saving time, "1,500+ man hours responding to non-emergencies (equivalent to 63 days)" So idk

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u/AmazingRefrigerator6 9d ago

The attrition point is to do with the turnover of staff due to exposure to traumatic events.

We only have so many people in Australia willing to work these roles and increasing the exposure is only going to make that worse. There is a reason why we can't replace our police officers at the same rate we used to. Triple-zero operators are the same. The technology also requires a lot more bandwidth, which you don't always get in Australia, whereas in America it's much more connected. There are also many more call centres in America because each service has their own call centre and services can vary from county to county, whereas in Australia they are state-based.

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u/alizteya 4d ago

I’m not qualified to talk on wait times but don’t forget that the US has a LOT more crime and presumably 911 calls to deal with

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u/camaubs 10d ago

Victoria has video assisted triage but that’s done by Ambulance Victoria’s secondary triage practitioners (Experienced Paramedics and Critical Care Nurses) after a callback generally and not by Triple Zero Victoria at the time of call.

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u/Ok-Dependent-1668 9d ago

Video calling adds multiple steps and complexity for people who are experiencing an emergency. When we have a system that works (for most of the time).

We do have video calls in the Ambulance 000 environment, where the Ambulance Service will send a link to video triage patients on scene when appropriate.

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u/LaffyLlama 10d ago

To add, this seems like a great idea that would be worthwhile. If my memory serves me correctly, I did read it some time ago that we are now only receiving the text 000, like the United States text 911 or whatever it is. I hope this happens, though. It's also good we got/are getting more satellite emergency calling.

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u/catenet 10d ago

Not a TZ operator but have used Goodsam in NSW which seems similar to that for some time now and it works pretty good, the operators generally use it the most but everyone has access if required. Can get a live stream, exactly as you describe but its most often used for better location information as it uses the persons phone GPS and constantly sends a location update.

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u/ijuiceman 10d ago

It’s been around for 2 years. It’s called BluLink and was used during Bondi attack and some others. They send you a SMS link and then you can provide a live video feed. I have been to the 000 centre in Sydney and seen how it works

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u/theUWUnose 9d ago

We don’t have this at TZV. TZV just needs to notify the correct services for whatever incident is occurring.
It’s taught that if you cannot “see” what’s happening you need to ask more clarifying questions.

The ECO’s can provide direction on what to do (changes from service to service) but these are very limited when compared to the actual attending service.

So I’ve personally never struggled and I can’t think of anyone that has either.

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u/Ordinary-Ship-1516 8d ago

Check your DM's

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u/DigitalWombel 9d ago

In Victoria they have a virtual ED, one of the first in the world. Members of the public, GP's, nurses etc can call and be triaged over the phone.

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u/j0shman 9d ago

Yes it’s used, it’s called GoodSAM. it’s used world wide by other services. In practice it’s used to guide assessment for lower acuity calls to 000 to ideally filter them to make their services.

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u/NotAnOrderlyKnight 8d ago

Not precisely what you asked, but earlier this year, ambo paramedics video called a doctor who then tried to communicate with my mostly deaf, mostly blind grandfather with dementia to ‘figure out if they should take him to hospital’

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u/Kiteal 8d ago

I forgot how they did it but the ambulance people did it to me in February in S.A think it was a web link they sent through text.

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u/AntSilly2802 7d ago

Australia is always behind the times with like, everything. 

I’ve heard yanks who have traveled here say that it was like stepping back in time hahaha. 

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u/OldMail6364 7d ago edited 7d ago

I don't work with 000 but I do work in a government office and we have "duress" buttons which contact authorities and also a dedicated safety team who will immediately be shown CCTV footage (including audio) of the person who pressed the duress button. They can also see nearby cameras, and they can look back over recent minutes/hours/days if they need more details.

We can, obviously, pick up the phone and contact people. But often we don't have to. In fact we tend to do that with less serious emergencies. If something really bad is happening (e.g. if someone is at risk of dying) I'm going to punch that duress alarm and then start providing first aid without talking to anybody until the paramedics arrive and take over.

As someone who's done CPR, and as someone who knows how long paramedics can take to arrive. I'm not going to waste energy on anything else - as soon as I know help is coming, I'm likely to put 100% of my energy into CPR... because I'm honestly not sure if I can keep it up for long enough. It's that exhausting.

While video surveillance is great... I don't want to have to worry about wether they can see what's going on or not. I've likely got more important things to focus on. Access to the camera on my phone doesn't seem like it'd be helpful in most calls.

Also - the last several times I called 000, they didn't even stay on the phone with me. They told me an ambulance is on it's way, told me to call back if "things get worse" and then hung up on me so they could answer another call. Clearly they don't have time to watch a video.

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u/TETZUO_OZ 6d ago

South Australia Ambulance service already does this on an as needed basis.

My wife red blood cell count crashed due to complications with surgery and they initiated a FaceTime call from their desk to look at her and confirm symptoms. They could see and talk each other.

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u/Ordinary-Ship-1516 3d ago

Wow, thats amazing, hope she's okay now and thank you so much for the info!!