Montana’s 911 Dispatcher of the Year Receives Recognition from Governor Greg Gianforte

Montana's 911 Dispatcher of the Year is Great Falls/Cascade County 911 Dispatcher Brandon Skogen! Yesterday Skogen received the recognition from Governor Greg Gianforte, at a ceremony in the capitol building (Helena) celebrating the 50th anniversary of National Emergency Medical Services week. Skogen was nominated by Great Falls Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Bob Shupe. Help us congratulate Skogen and check out the nomination below. NOMINATION INFORMATION Brandon started his EMS career in 1999 when he worked at Fort Benton Memorial as an EMT. He left that position to become a full time EMS provider for Great Falls Emergency Services in Great Falls in 2001. Brandon remained in that role until 2005 when he became a 911 dispatcher at the Great Falls/Cascade County Emergency Communication Center. When Brandon started work as a dispatcher, he also joined the Black Eagle Volunteer Fire Department. He served as a firefighter and EMS provider to the residents of Black Eagle and Cascade County for 12 years. Brandon is currently completing his 19th year as a 911 dispatcher. He has used his past experience as an EMS provider to strengthen the response system across a large swath of North Central Montana. He accomplished this by assisting all volunteer departments in Cascade County create their own departmental run cards for EMS and fire based response. He helped them understand how run cards affect the dispatch center, resource management and ultimately the citizens that were in need of emergency dispatch services. He ensured all chiefs understood the concept of continuity of care and what resources were needed to be sent through EMD dispatching guidelines. We use this same mindset in the City of Great Falls which has a more robust call volume. Ensuring the right resource is sent starts with the 911 intake center. Brandon has mentored countless other dispatchers and helped them grasp this concept of EMD dispatching which strengthened our EMS response system. He has been very open minded and worked tirelessly to help make our system stronger and more efficient which greatly affects the survivability profile of people activating a 911 response. Brandon has been instrumental in organizing a dual response layer consisting of County and City responders. This was created to facilitate high priority EMS responses to motor vehicle accidents with injury and high acuity EMS calls within a map layer that consists of all areas that border our city. This is known as our bubble layer. This was no easy task. His attention to EMS protocol, patient acuity and resource allocation helped with this immensely. His efforts at training others was paramount to the success of the entire staff at the 911 dispatch center. Dispatchers play a critical role in the success of an incident from the very start. Brandon stands out as one of the best that I have worked with, as a front line firefighter as well as a Chief Officer. His efforts have without a doubt increased the effectiveness of many departments in North Central Montana and Cascade County, as well as the 911 Dispatch Center.