Take a Call, Dispatch, and Complete the Run Sheet
An ambulance run has two hands on it, and they belong to two different people. The dispatcher runs the control desk — they take the emergency call (a request for an ambulance, with the caller, location, complaint and a priority) and dispatch a vehicle to it (assign an ambulance and crew, which opens the run and starts the response-time clock). The paramedic — the field clinician — then works the call: they advance the run through its stages, record what they did on the run sheet (also called the patient-care report — the record of one ambulance response), and eSign it. Neither does the other’s job; that boundary is enforced.
Who / when: Chidi the dispatcher logs and dispatches the call from the desk the moment it comes in; Funke the paramedic works the run in the field and completes the sheet on the way in or at the destination.
We will follow a chest-pain call.
The dispatcher takes the call and sends an ambulance
Section titled “The dispatcher takes the call and sends an ambulance”- Dispatcher — open Ambulance & EMS → Dispatch. This is the live board: the readouts (fleet available, open calls, active runs, median response), the open calls, and the runs already on the road.
- Dispatcher — press “Log Emergency Call”. Record the chief complaint (e.g. “chest pain”), the location and any landmark, the caller’s name and phone, and the priority. Priority runs P1 (most urgent) to P4 (routine transport) — it decides how the receiving ED will rank the patient on arrival, so set it honestly.
- Dispatcher — if the patient is already known to the facility, search for them in Known Patient and link them. This is the single most important field for what happens at the end: a linked patient is what lets the arrival open an ED visit and bill the run. Leave it blank only for a genuinely unidentified casualty.
- Dispatcher — the new call appears under Open Calls. Press “Dispatch” on its row, pick an in-service ambulance, optionally pick the lead attending, and confirm. This opens the run, stamps the dispatch time (the clock is now running), and flips both the call and the vehicle to Dispatched.
The paramedic works the run and signs the sheet
Section titled “The paramedic works the run and signs the sheet”- Paramedic — open Ambulance & EMS → Run Sheets and click the run to open its detail panel.
- Paramedic — advance the run along the response-time chain as it happens: Mark En-Route → Mark On-Scene → Mark Transporting → Mark At-Destination. Each stamps its own timestamp once — Veona will not let you re-stamp a stage, so the response intervals stay truthful. (If you never reach the patient, Cancel Run frees the vehicle and closes the call.)
- Paramedic — fill in the sheet: the assessment (what you found and did), the destination, and the transport distance in kilometres (this is what drives the mileage charge later).
- Paramedic — record any field consumable used — O2, an airway or trauma kit, dressings. Pick it from the stock item picker so it draws down inventory (Veona takes the nearest-expiry lot by default), or type a free-text item for something off-ledger. A stock-linked item posts cost-of-goods automatically.
- Paramedic — press “Sign Sheet” and enter your eSign PIN (the universal 6-digit signing PIN). Signing attests the record and locks it — once signed, the assessment, destination, distance and consumables can no longer be edited.
What happens next
Section titled “What happens next”With the sheet signed, the run is ready to close. The paramedic records the handoff at the receiving unit — and for a known patient brought to the ED, that single action opens the receiving ED visit, frees the ambulance, closes the call, and bills the run. That is the next guide.