The Medical Events data set reflects information approved for general release by the Cambridge Police Department and the Cambridge Fire Department. All entries are inputted by dispatchers in the Emergency Communications Center (ECC). This data set does not reflect all events received by the ECC. Certain entries are not included due to concerns related to privacy, criminal investigation, or protected data. Additionally, not all entries reflect a dispatched response and some data may reflect a duplicate entry for a specific incident.
The decision for a medical incident to be coded as one of the three types is not a reflection of the importance of the call, and should not be misconstrued to mean that the dispatcher or Cambridge ECD feels that the call or caller are unimportant. We strive to provide the best possible emergency service to our constituents, and never withhold care due to classification. Within each Chief Complaint, there are rankings of severity and priority; for privacy and security reasons, we do not provide this information, but this internal ranking is often as important to the dispatcher as the category. All calls received at the Cambridge ECC are treated with the utmost care and respect.