Identifying Decision Complexity Factors in Ambulance Command and Control

Abstract

To understand the decision making processes of fourteen ambulance command and control (C2) operators, interviews employing the critical decision method were conducted in two ambulance C2 centres. An emergent themes analysis of the interview transcripts resulted in the identification of the strategies used by the operators when making dispatch decisions. To complement this work, factors that were considered to contribute to the complexity of the decision making task were identified and then rated by the operators to determine the extent of this contribution. As a result the researchers obtained quantitative data regarding the factors that were considered to contribute the greatest to the complexity of the dispatch task from the view point of the operators. The benefits of this approach include the identification of cognitive 'choke points' in the dispatch process that can be addressed during interface design.