Automated massaging improves response in L.A.

Los Angeles opened its Emergency operations Center (EOC) more than 40 years ago as a small operation to manage emergency response by the city’s departments. Incidents have ranged from natural disasters, like earthquakes, floods and brush fires, to major events requiring crowd control, such as the 1994 World Cup soccer matches hosted by the city.

Today, the EOC is responsible for coordinating a variety of responses in all departments, including police, fire, damage assessment and communications. In addition, the police department has its own EOC component called the Emergency Control Center (ECC), which specifically coordinates response efforts by the police department.

Understandably, the EOC needs an efficient and rapid communications system that facilitates data exchange among departments during life-threatening situations.

But until 1994, the center used a paper-messaging system to handle responses among the numerous departments. At the time, there were only 10 PCs in the EOC office.

During an emergency, each city department had a specific work area. As reports came into the EOC, someone would write information on a three-part carbon form and place it in a box next to his or her work area.

A runner would deliver two copies to the appropriate departments, and a third would be keyed into a wordprocessing journal.

The paper-based system lacked an intelligent work flow and therefore slowed response times. Messages would often pile up on desks in various departments, and the EOC was unable to efficiently manage the flow of its messages.

Furthermore, prioritization of response activities presented a significant challenge, since messages would pile up in a box, and departments would respond first to the message on top.

In addition, if the EOC or a department needed to analyze past response, it had to search through large filing cabinets, where documents could be easily misfiled or lost.

In 1992, MultiMation, Los Angeles, recommended that the EOC expand. The company consulted with the city on implementing an automated groupware/workflow system. The new system had to be similar to the existing system to reduce “culture shock.”

Consequently, in 1994, the city implemented Lotus Notes, a custom-designed messaging application developed by Lotus Development, Cambridge, Mass.

The system consists of a Novell token-ring network, with the program running on an OS/2 server. There are around 80 486 and Pentium-based PC workstations, two or three for each department.

Each department has a “message center” for information gathering and coordination within the EOC. Incident information, such as fires, traffic light outages or riot locations, is immediately entered into the system from within the EOC or from a remote location.

A “message packet” of information is generated and automatically distributed in real time to any designated departments within the EOC and/or remote locations.

All detailed information about the situation, as well as available pictures and maps, is included in the packet.

Each message packet provides information on the sender, receiver and originator; the subject; the event number; the time and date of the message; location, date and time of the incident; the text of the message; any responses; and any additional graphics, maps or documents.

In addition to being electronically copied to the appropriate departments, each message is sent to the EOC’s situation-assessment section for a real-time overview of all EOC activities. This section is responsible for monitoring all messages and conducting audit trail functions.

The EOC can thus ensure that all assigned tasks are being completed and that start-delivery duration is acceptable. It can also eliminate any bottlenecks by constantly monitoring the flow of messages.

The EOC has also eliminated its “white board” system in which incoming information was written on a large board. In Lotus Notes, a “status board” allows easy, rapid updates available to everyone.

If the city needs to analyze past responses, a keyword or number is typed in to retrieve the information. The time is noted on the messages so that the EOC has an audit-trail capability, allowing it to track past messages and ascertain the sender, destination and details of messages. The EOC can thus pinpoint response problems.