Communication and cooperation with AMK emergency dispatch
From alarm to hospital handover
No ambulance operation happens in a vacuum. From the moment the alarm comes in until the patient is handed over at the hospital you are part of a communication chain that binds you together with the emergency centre colleagues and receiving department. If communication goes wrong along the way even the best clinical effort can lose its value.
§The AMK control center coordinates the response
In each region there is an AMK emergency centre (Acute Medical Coordination), which receives 1-1-2 calls about illness and accidents, assesses the urgency and dispatches the relevant ambulance, acute care vehicle or other pre-hospital unit. The AMK emergency centre is also who you contact if you need medical advice during transport, extra resources at the scene, or help finding the right receiving department.
§Common radio communication in the emergency response
The Danish emergency services — police, fire, ambulance, and other authorities — use a common digital radio communication system that allows different authorities to communicate with each other during an operation, instead of each unit sitting isolated on its own system. This is a central part of how an incident site with multiple authorities present can be coordinated effectively, without messages having to be relayed verbally from person to person.
- 01Clear, brief language without filler makes radio communication faster to understand
- 02You always confirm an important message so the sender knows it has been received correctly
- 03Common channels are used for coordination between authorities at an accident site
- 04Personal sensitive information is minimised over open radio
§ISBAR – structure for handover
When you arrive at the hospital, a lot of information must be handed over in a short time to the receiving staff. Many places in the Danish healthcare system use the communication method ISBAR for just that kind of handover: Identification, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation. The method ensures you get through what's most important in a fixed order even when pressed for time, and the person receiving the patient gets answers to the questions that matter most for further treatment.
| Letter in ISBAR | Content |
|---|---|
| I — Identification | Who is the patient, and who hands over |
| S — Situation | What is the acute problem right now |
| B — Background | Relevant medical history and sequence of events |
| A — Analysis/assessment | Your professional assessment of the condition |
| R — Advice/recommendation | What you propose or have already initiated |
Good communication is a skill on a par with clinical procedures. The better you can convey what you observe and do, the better you work with both emergency central, colleagues and the receiving hospital.
§Communication with patient and relatives
The communication task does not stop at the radio and the patient record. The patient and any relatives often experience the situation as chaotic and frightening, and much of your expertise is about explaining what is happening in language they can understand — without technical terms that create more unease than clarity. A calm explanation of why you are doing what you are doing and what should happen next can itself help to calm and build trust in the middle of an acute situation.
Finally communication is also an internal task between you and your partner. You must be able to divide tasks with few words, correct each other without it being perceived as criticism in a stressful situation, and afterwards be able to talk openly about what went well and what could be done better. The internal communication in the team is often what in practice determines whether all the other communication lines — to dispatch, patient and hospital — will function as a unified, coherent effort.