Emergency Medical Services Clarification Amendment Act of 2026

COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
OFFICE OF COUNCILMEMBER BROOKE PINTO
THE JOHN A. WILSON BUILDING
1350 PENNSLYVANIA AVENUE, N.W., SUITE 106
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20004

February 19, 2026

Nyasha Howard, Secretary
Council of the District of Columbia
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Secretary Howard,

Today I, along with Councilmembers Janeese Lewis George and Anita Bonds, am introducing the
“Emergency Medical Services Clarification Amendment Act of2026 to improve and protect
accuracy in emergency and non-emergency call responses. Please find enclosed a signed copy of
the legislation.

The Office of Unified Communications (OUC), home to the DC911 call center, is responsible for
providing fast, professional, and cost-effective response to emergency and non-emergency calls in
the District. OUC was established in 2005 to combine the emergency 911, non-emergency and 311
call activities from the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Fire and Emergency Medical
Services (Fire & EMS), and customer services operations.

Residents and visitors to the District deserve a DC911 call center that is efficient, speedy, and
accurate. Over the past several years, the Committee and Council received a significant number of
complaints from DC residents about long call-to-answer wait times, errors, and transparency issues
at the agency. Operational problems and mistakes at the agency over wrong addresses have led to
injuries and even tragic deaths.

Since that time, the Committee and Council have worked through oversight and legislation to
institute and maintain needed improvements, including the public dashboard for reporting 911 call
errors to increase transparency and accountability established by my Secure DC Omnibus
Amendment Act of 2024.1 There have been important payoffs and progress of these efforts in terms
of efficiency and speed: in 2023, only 74% of calls the agency received were answered within 20
seconds or less. Following rigorous oversight by the Committee, from Fiscal Year 2025 to the
present, of the 1.4 million calls the agency received, 98% were answered in 20 seconds or less,
well above the national standard. Likewise, OUC has increased staff , and the Committee has
funded OUC call taker pay raises and recruitment and retention bonuses, to ensure that staffing
targets are met. Whereas in July 2024 only 13% of shifts met minimal staffing targets, by July
2025 79% of shifts met staffing targets.

1 D.C. Law 25-0175.
While there have been improvements in efficiency and speed, further legislation is necessary to
improve and protect accuracy in call responses. The work of this agency is high-stakes and in the
public interest: any mistake or delay can have life-altering consequences.

This legislation would do two things in the effort to align the progress the agency has made in
efficiency and speed with that of accuracy and transparency:
• Clarify the Fire & EMS Medical Director statute to explicitly codify that the Fire &
EMS Medical Director is also the Medical Director of OUC, to provide oversight,
supervision, and final decision- making for all clinical aspects of pre -hospital emergency
and medical services. In clarifying the duties of the Director, the bill also confers upon the
Medical Director explicit authority over selecting, revising, and establishing dispatch
protocols and response-plans regarding emergency and medical services as well as explicit
authority over quality assurance of EMS dispatch and emergency medical services,
including Continuous Quality Improvement programs.
• Codify the training requirement that within one year of being hired (or for current
employees, within one year of this bill going into effect), call takers and dispatchers
be certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD), which is training for handling calls
for emergency medical services. Although currently OUC requires call takers and
dispatchers to be EMD-certified, this requirement is not codified. This change is necessary
to ensure OUC has national best practices training regardless of agency leadership.

This bill would thus ensure that the progress made at and the public trust in this agency are
enhanced and protected by making certain that accuracy and transparency in call response match
the current gains in efficiency and speed that the DC911 call center has achieved.

Should you have any questions about this legislation, please contact my Committee Deputy
Director, Eloy LaBrada, at erodriguezlabrada@dccouncil.gov.

Thank you,

Brooke Pinto
Ward 2 Councilmember

_______________________________ ________________________
Councilmember Janeese Lewis George Councilmember Brooke Pinto

________________________
Councilmember Anita Bonds

A BILL

_________________________

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

_________________________

To amend An Act To classify the officers and members of the fire department of the District of 1
Columbia, and for other purposes to clarify the duties and responsibilities of the Medical 2
Director; and to amend the Office of Unified Communications Establishment Act of 2004 3
to add a certification requirement for call takers and dispatchers within the Office of 4
Unified Communications. 5
6
BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this 7
act may be cited as the “Emergency Medical Services Clarification Amendment Act of 2026”. 8
Sec. 2. Section 3a(d) of An Act To classify the officers and members of the fire 9
department of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes, effective April 15, 2008 (D.C. 10
Law 17-147; D.C. Official Code § 5-404.01(d)), is amended to read as follows: 11
“(d) The Medical Director shall: 12
“(1) Provide medical oversight, supervision, and final decision-making for all 13
clinical aspects of pre-hospital emergency medical services provided by the Department and the 14
Office of Unified Communications (“the Office”), including: 15
“(A) Written policies, procedures, and protocols, including dispatch 16
protocols and response-plans, for communicating with members of the public and emergency 17

medical services providers regarding pre-hospital medical care and other emergency services; 18
“(B) Medical training; 19
“(C) Reporting of performance metrics, including EMS dispatch 20
performance metrics; 21
“(D) Replacing, revising, or otherwise editing of the Office’s dispatch 22
system; and 23
“(E) Quality assurance of EMS dispatch and emergency medical services, 24
including pre-hospital emergency services and including implementation and supervision of 25
Continuous Quality Improvement (“CQI”) programs, wherein no documents, interviews, or other 26
information collected during a CQI process to improve operational performance shall be 27
disclosed or used as part of a disciplinary investigation and wherein no employee who self-28
reports an issue to the CQI program shall be subject to disciplinary action based on the reported 29
issue; 30
“(2) Supervise the administration of pre-hospital medical care; 31
“(3) Work collaboratively with the Director and other personnel of the Office, 32
Fire Chief, Assistant and Deputy Fire Chiefs, and other personnel in the Department; and 33
“(4) Provide recommendations to the Mayor on the overall performance of the 34
Office and the Department.”. 35
Sec. 3. The Office of Unified Communications Establishment Act of 2004, effective 36
December 7, 2004 (D.C. Law 15-205; D.C. Official Code § 1-327.51 et seq.), is amended by 37
adding a new section 3205e to read as follows: 38
“Sec. 3205e. Emergency Medical Dispatch certification. 39
“(a) The Office shall require that all Office call takers and dispatchers obtain an EMD 40
certification within one year after being hired. 41
“(b) The Office shall require that all call takers and dispatchers already employed in the 42
Office obtain an EMD certification within one year after the effective date of the Emergency 43
Medical Services Clarification Amendment Act of 2026, as introduced on February 19, 2026 44
(Bill 26-XXX). 45
“(c) The Medical Director shall approve the EMD certification authority pursuant to the 46
Medical Director’s authority under section 3a(d) of An Act To classify the officers and members 47
of the fire department of the District of Columbia, and for other purposes, effective April 15, 48
2008 (D.C. Law 17-147; D.C. Official Code § 5-404.01(d)). 49
“(d) For the purposes of this section, the term “EMD certification” means a specialized 50
public safety designation that authorizes telecommunicators to perform medical triage and 51
provide life-saving pre-arrival instructions under the authority of the Medical Director, ensuring 52
a standardized, scientifically-validated response to medical emergencies.”. 53
Sec. 4. Fiscal impact statement. 54
The Council adopts the fiscal impact statement in the committee report as the fiscal 55
impact statement required by section 4a of the General Legislative Procedures Act of 1975, 56
approved October 16, 2006 (120 Stat. 2038; D.C. Official Code § 1-301.47a). 57
Sec. 5. Effective date. 58
This act shall take effect after approval by the Mayor (or in the event of veto by the 59
Mayor, action by the Council to override the veto) and a 30-day period of congressional review 60
as provided in section 602(c)(1) of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, approved December 61
24, 1973 (87 Stat. 813; D.C. Official Code § 1-206.02(c)(1)). 62