On any given day, OnStar advisers must be ready to call a tow truck or provide turn-by-turn directions. Or save a life or deliver a baby.
Take two years ago. Bryan Anta, 33, answered an OnStar emergency call from a man rushing his pregnant wife to the hospital when the baby started coming.
Anta had the father fully recline the front seat and coached him through delivering a son. That was the easy part.
Next, came tying off the umbilical cord. That鈥檚 crucial; otherwise blood could drain too quickly into either the baby or the mother, causing serious complications. The emergency protocol suggests use a string or a shoelace.
鈥淭he father didn鈥檛 have either,鈥� Ante recalled.
As Ante鈥檚 adrenalin raged, he mentally climbed in that car and looked around. He had an epiphany: 鈥淎lmost every one has a cellphone charger, so he can use that cord to tie off the umbilical cord.鈥�
When it worked, said Anta, 鈥渆veryone on the [OnStar] floor cheered.鈥�
Anta credits the success of that day to OnStar鈥檚 staff doctor鈥檚 training.
That鈥檚 right, OnStar has its own staff doctor. Paul Stiegler, 66, spent more than three decades as a top-rated emergency room physician. For the past eight years, he has been OnStar鈥檚 medical director. In that role, he likes to say he has a potential patient base in the millions.
鈥淚鈥檓 responsible for anything done medically to a patient鈥� through OnStar, said Stiegler. 鈥淭here are protocols for everything you tell a patient, from taking an aspirin鈥� to administrating cardiopulmonary resuscitation to delivering babies.
OnStar is General Motors鈥� in-vehicle driver鈥檚 assistance program that offers subscribers such services as automatic crash response, stolen vehicle help, remote door unlock, navigation, vehicle diagnostics and hands-free calling. It also handles an array of medical emergencies.
In the United States and sa国际传媒, for which Stiegler is responsible, OnStar has about 5.5 million subscribers. Subscribers pay $24.99 a month or $240.90 a year for the OnStar Safety and Security plan that includes emergency services.
Last year, OnStar emergency advisers handled about 115,000 calls in the U.S. and sa国际传媒, an OnStar spokeswoman said. On average, they help deliver at least two babies a year, Stiegler said.
鈥淲e know how to do more types of deliveries than most paramedics in the field would know, such as delivering a breach baby,鈥� said Stiegler.
All it takes is a subscriber pushing the red emergency OnStar button in their car. That鈥檚 when Stiegler鈥檚 training kicks in and a dispatcher has scripts to help a person through a wide array of medical crises.
Cathy Bishop, OnStar鈥檚 emergency services senior manager, hired Stiegler in 2010.
鈥淚 was running a 911 centre and I had run an emergency medical dispatch program there. When I聽came to OnStar, I realized we needed to implement something similar,鈥� Bishop said. 鈥淚t was necessary to find an accredited physician to oversee the program because we鈥檇 be interacting with some 6,000 emergency centres across the U.S. and sa国际传媒.鈥�
Prior to hiring Stiegler, advisers did not give callers at the scene any pre-hospital arrival medical instructions.
鈥淚t gives you a whole different sense of being able to handle an emergency when you know you can do something,鈥� said Bishop.
Dr. Jeff Clawson developed the series of key questions, pre-arrival instructions and dispatch priorities used in the calls. Clawson, the medical director for the Salt Lake City Fire Department, recommended Stiegler for the OnStar job, said Bishop.
鈥淒oing emergency medical dispatch from a private service is unheard of, so it was very critical that we do it right and achieve the highest quality possible in providing this service,鈥� Bishop said.
Stiegler has 35 years鈥� experience as an emergency room physician. He leans on that knowledge to train OnStar鈥檚 emergency advisers on everything from talking someone through birth to saving someone who鈥檚 choking. It鈥檚 crucial training because what鈥檚 done in the minutes before an ambulance arrive, can often be the difference between life and death, he said.
鈥淲e had a driver call whose passenger had a sudden cardiac arrest,鈥� Stiegler said. 鈥淲e gave him instructions on how to place his hands on the chest and the rate to do compressions and we kept encouraging him鈥� to keep the person alive until the ambulance arrived to take over.
OnStar follows established protocol from the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch in the medical instructions to gives. Beyond that, Stiegler鈥檚 job is to make sure the nearly 110 OnStar emergency advisers in the U.S. and sa国际传媒 know what to do if a patient鈥檚 condition suddenly goes off script.
Each month, Stiegler, who lives in Madison, Wisconsin, drives his 2013 Chevrolet Equinox SUV to a nearby park. There, he hits the red OnStar button and acts out various emergency medical scenarios with the dispatchers for training.
鈥淭hey run through the script with me and I critique them,鈥� Stiegler said.
Sometimes his acting is so realistic, park visitors rap on his window, asking whether he needs help.
鈥淚 have to say: 鈥楴o, thank you, I鈥檓 training. It鈥檚 fake,鈥欌�� Stiegler said with a chuckle.
He also reviews the 12-15 OnStar emergency life-critical calls each week from the two OnStar call centres in U.S. and sa国际传媒: One is in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the other is in Oshawa, Ont. He evaluates the advisers鈥� performances, offering tips to improve.
The training helps OnStar鈥檚 advisers to handle the unexpected.
Take the summer of 2014. Anta was working his afternoon shift at OnStar鈥檚 call centre in Oshawa when he got a crisis call.
鈥淪omebody was gasping for air and we couldn鈥檛 tell what was going on other than someone was in urgent distress,鈥� said Anta.
Anta was able to figure out the caller, a woman, was in the midst of a severe asthma attack. Anta had to figure out how to communicate with her, given she was unable to speak.
鈥淲e had to think outside the box, so I ended up communicating through her horn,鈥� said Anta. 鈥淚 got her to honk once for yes, twice for no. So when I asked her if she saw the fire department coming, she honked once. We could then remotely unlock her doors so the responders could get to her.鈥�
While Stiegler did not train Anta to specifically make some of the decisions he has made, the doctor taught Anta and other advisers to mentally put themselves at the scene to creatively solve problems.
鈥淲hen we get a call, we鈥檙e transporting ourselves into the vehicle,鈥� said Anta. 鈥淲e try to think of what the member is experiencing in the vehicle."
