Section 120d.102. Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

Act—The Public Safety Emergency Telephone Act (35 P. S. § § 7011—7021).

Agency—The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

Call-taking—The act of answering 911 calls from the public and obtaining the information necessary to dispatch a public safety unit, such as fire, police, medical and rescue, to the reported location of the emergency.

Catastrophic loss—The loss of three or more human lives or property damage or loss exceeding $75,000.

Day—Refers to an actual 24-hour day, not a ‘‘working day.’’

Dispatching—The act of alerting and directing the response of public safety units to the desired location.

Emergency dispatched calls—Emergency incidents to which a 911 communications center dispatches public safety units.

Emergency medical dispatch protocols—A system or program that enables patients to be assessed and treated via telephone by utilizing current accepted emergency medical dispatch standards.

911 communications center—A 911 Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP; also referred to as a remote dispatch point in this chapter. A communications center may be operated by a county, city, borough or township.

Performance appraisal—A yearly written evaluation of a telecommunicator’s job performance measured against established 911 communications center expectations and standards.

Quality assurance action—An action taken by a quality assurance reviewer or 911 center supervisor after the occurrence of a quality assurance review of a telecommunicator to correct or improve job performance deficiencies identified by the quality assurance review. The quality assurance action may require the telecommunicator to take additional training courses or instruction, be subject to a second quality assurance review process outside of the normal time frames identified in this section, or be subject to disciplinary or other personnel actions deemed appropriate by the 911 communications center supervisor or reviewer.

Quality assurance review—A quality assurance process that is used to assess the job performance of a telecommunicator.

Radio activity—The act of dispatching and communicating on a public safety radio frequency.

Standard operating procedures—A set of policies and procedures developed and adopted by a 911 communications center to aid in directing the daily operations of the telecommunications staff.

Telecommunicator—A full-time or part-time 911 communications center call-taker or emergency dispatcher.