Dothan Houston County E 911 Board Meets - New Chairman Elected

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
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334-790-1729
Date: Jul 10 2013 10:44 AM

DOTHAN - HOUSTON COUNTY:    Six members of the Dothan - Houston County E-911 Advisory Committee held their regular scheduled meeting this morning.

The board had new members, those being Rob Meredith of Dothan IT Division. Meredith is an interim replacement for the IT Department since the retirement of Tim Stewart from the City of Dothan. The other new member is Steve Carlisle, Dothan - Houston County Emergency Management Director. Carlisle replaces Clark Matthews who recently retired as EMA Director.

The first order of business was to select a new Chairman of the Dothan - Houston County E-911 Advisory Committee. The group selected Dothan Police Chief Greg Benton as Chairman of the Advisory Committee.

The group discussed a date to visit another communications center in Florida. The group wants to see other facilities in discussion of the design for a new communications center for Dothan - Houston County.

Dothan Fire Chief Larry Williams gave the committee an update on the new Dothan Fire Station paging alert system. This system is where Dothan 911 Center picks up the telephone and rings down the fire stations alerting them of medical or fire emergency. The system is the most advanced system and gives the 911 Center confirmation the call went through. The current system was installed in the 1990's and technology has outgrown the current system.

Chief Williams said the equipment has been shipped and is in the vendor staging area in Mulberry Florida. The vendor has made site visits and installation will begin the first of August. By October 1 the new system should be on line and operational, which was the intended date. This new system came with a cost of some $ 429,000.00

The committee approved the purchase of the most current EMD cards. These cards, EMD for Emergency Medical Dispatch, allow the 911 operators to have the most advanced emergency medical guidelines available when presented with medical emergencies.

IMPORTANT:    When you call 911, the Dothan - Houston County 911 Center staff are trained and certified to give medical information to the caller. The 911 operator steps the caller through basic emergency medical techniques for them to undertake while the emergency units are responding. So when you call 911 and you think the operator is asking you to many questions and help is not on the way, you are wrong.

What is happening, as the 911 operator is getting information from you that information is typed in the computer. The dispatcher at the Fire/EMS radio console is looking at the information the 911 Operator is typing in the computer. The dispatcher is rolling emergency units to the scene of the emergency while you are talking. The person taking the call is often times not the person actually dispatching the emergency units to the scene.

As the 911 Operator is talking to you they pull the EMD ( Emergency Medical Dispatch ) card that steps through immediate life saving measures for the caller to take. Such as, if the person is not breathing, steps the caller through beginning CPR, a stroke - steps them what procedures to begin, bleeding and will not stop - steps them through steps to stop the bleeding.

So be patient with the 911 Operator. Their job is to (1) get you calm (2) find out what the emergency is (3) find out the location of the emergency (4) roll the nearest and appropriate emergency responders to handle your emergency (5) help guide you through basic emergency medical procedures to get the emergency under control and save the life while the responders are rolling to the scene of the emergency.

Just a little insight to the 911 Center.

 

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