Posts Tagged 911 Emergency Dispatchers

911 Dispatch Center in Gary mishandles call

Aug 9

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from ABCChicago.com where the audio recording is available:

A 911 dispatcher has been disciplined for her handling of an emergency call at a health club in Gary, Ind. The gym patron who needed help survived, but he’s worried there’s a larger issue when you call 911 in Lake County.

“I was just passed out,” said Clement Ervin last month. His friend called 911, explained his condition, and got this response from the dispatcher.

Dispatcher: “Okay, we’re kind of short on medics so it’s going to be a minute.”
Caller: “You said who?”
Dispatcher: “We don’t have any medics and it’s going to be a minute.”
Caller: “Okay, let me take him to the hospital.”

The Lake County dispatcher offered no additional help. Her boss says that was the error.

“Being a dispatcher, myself included, you don’t tell someone you don’t have resources, you contact the agency and tell them your problem, then they’re the ones that guide the resources,” said Brian Hitchcock, executive director, Lake County 911 Department.

And since an ambulance was not available, Gary officials said firefighters right across the street from the gym could have responded. But the Lake County dispatcher never transferred the call to them.

“The call did not officially go through the Gary dispatch. And because of that, a unit was not sent,” said LaLosa Dent Burns, Gary spokeswoman.

In June, Burt Sanders died of a heart attack inside a Gary church after his 911 call was mishandled. Lake County fired a dispatcher and suspended another one. That’s why Ervin, who wants to raise awareness, is now speaking out about his experience.

The executive director of the 911 department said a new, state-of-the-art dispatch center will open next month, and all the dispatchers will be trained under a national standard.

thanks Dan

Tags: 911 dispatcher disciplined, 911 Emergency Dispatchers, Gary Fire Department

Another municipality to outsource emergency dispatch services

Aug 29

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

My Suburbanlife.com has an article about a decision to outsource the emergency dispatch for police and fire in Bolingbrook:

Bolingbrook’s police and fire dispatch services will be outsourced this fall.

The Bolingbrook Village Board voted Tuesday to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM) to take over the services, a move officials say will net the village a savings of $319,000 annually. WESCOM, considered a unit of local government, is a consolidated dispatch service with 19 member agencies across three counties, primarily Will County.

In addition to the savings, WESCOM offers better technology and a larger staff in the event of critical incidents, officials said. The move also follows the State of Illinois’ pro-consolidation stance, according to Bolingbrook Deputy Police Chief Tom Ross.

The agreement calls for the Village of Bolingbrook to pay WESCOM $1.13 million for its first year of membership. That figure is based on a projected number of calls the police and fire departments receive annually. The following years’ fees will be based on call volume as well.

Bolingbrook’s 14 full-time dispatchers and two supervisors will be offered jobs at WESCOM, according to Steve Rauter, executive director of WESCOM.

“We’ve outstretched our hand to take as many of them as Bolingbrook can provide,” Rauter said. “We haven’t heard from all of them yet but several have applied and they seem pretty excited to be coming here.” Any Bolingbrook employees hired on at WESCOM would bring accruals with them, Rauter said, including longevity level for salary purposes, years toward pension and some comp time.

Both entities’ employees are represented by unions. Currently, the 16 Bolingbrook dispatch employees are represented by AFSCME Council 31. WESCOM employees are represented by the Metropolitan Alliance of Police.

thanks Ron

Tags: 911 Emergency Dispatchers, Bolingbrook Deputy Police Chief Tom Ross, Bolingbrook Fire Department, consolidation of emergency dispatching, cost of consolidating emergency dispatch services, outsourcing emergency dispatch services, outsourcing of the 911 emergency dispatch services, Western Will County Communication Center (WESCOM)

Another department looks into consolidating emergency dispatch – Lemont FPD (update)

Dec 23

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, Fire Service News | 1 Comment

A followup article on the Lemont FIre Protection’s decision to go forward with outsourcing emergency dispatch services:

Lemont’s emergency fire and medical dispatchers last week received notice that their services might be contracted out to an outside provider. The district’s board of trustees Thursday decided to move forward with outsourcing. Lemont’s emergency fire and medical calls will soon be routed through [the] Orland Central call center, as the Fire Protection District Board of Trustees Thursday unanimously approved outsourcing the services.

The positions of the district’s 9 dispatchers—3 full-time and 6 part-time—will be eliminated when the change goes into effect, tentatively by April 1.
“We didn’t take this lightly,” said Fire Chief George Rimbo during the meeting. “We truly believe we’re giving you the recommendation that’s going to set us on the path of the right thing to do.”

The shift is to compensate for funds lacking in the district, following a court decision dictating that the fire district could no longer monitor fire alarms in businesses. Funds allocated for that service previously covered the cost of keeping dispatch in-house, Rimbo said. Without the funds, it’s not feasible for the district to cover the cost of dispatch operating from within the district, Rimbo said.

At a cost of roughly $116 per call with in-house services, contracting the work through Orland Central could reduce the cost to $39 per call—an estimated annual savings of roughly $235,000, said Rimbo.

Current dispatchers route vehicles based on proximity to one of the district’s four fire stations. Advanced real-time tracking technology used by Orland Central locates ambulances and fire trucks, and reroutes the nearest vehicle to an emergency, Rimbo said. High-end technology—such as a $1 million computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system—offered by Orland Central is a significant improvement over Lemont’s current $60,000 hardware, Rimbo said.

Orland Central is one of two fire/EMS/rescue dispatch centers in the state, and serves as back-up to the primary statewide MABAS Communication System operated out of Red Center in Northbrook. In 2012, the center’s 11 full-time and 8 part-time staff fielded 19,000 calls across the Orland Fire Protection District and the two additional contracted communities of Oak Forest and Calumet City. Lemont dispatchers field approximately 3,000 calls per year.

thanks Dan

Our previous post is HERE.

Tags: 911 Emergency Dispatchers, department may contract dispatch services, Lemont considers closing dispatch center, Lemont Fire Department, Lemont Fire Protection District, Lemont FPD Fire Chief George Rimbo, Lemont looks to joining Orland Central, MABAS Communication System, Orland Central Dispatch, Orland Fire Protection District, outsourcing emergency dispatch services, Red Center Emergency Dispatch

Another department looks into consolidating emergency dispatch – Lemont FPD

Dec 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, Fire Service News | 3 Comments

A recent article outlines a possible move to close the emergency dispatch center maintained by the Lemont Fire Protection District.

Lemont’s emergency fire and medical dispatchers received notice that their services might be contracted out to an outside provider. The Lemont Fire Protection District Board of Trustees will consider the move Dec. 19. Lemont emergency fire and medical calls could soon be routed through a center in Orland Park, as the Lemont Fire Protection District mulls outsourcing the service to compensate for lacking funds.

Fire dispatch employees last week received email notification of the potential change, which would eliminate their positions and shift the work to an Orland facility.

“We lost a decent amount of cash-flow to support our dispatchers,” said Fire Chief George Rimbo, of why they began researching the outsourcing. “We lost the revenue.”

Rimbo examined three options—Orland Central Dispatch, keeping the services in-house, and a third confidential party. At a cost of roughly $116 per call with in-house services, contracting the work through Orland Central could reduce the cost to $39 per call—an estimated annual savings of roughly $233,000, said Rimbo.

If the board approves contracting through the Orland Call Center, Rimbo expects to see call response time improve. Current dispatchers route vehicles based on proximity to one of the district’s four fire stations. Advanced real-time tracking technology used by Orland Central locates ambulances and fire trucks, and reroutes the nearest vehicle to an emergency, Rimbo said.

Orland Central is one of two fire/EMS/rescue dispatch centers in the state, and serves as back-up to the primary statewide MABAS Communication System operated out of Red Center in Northbrook. In 2012, the center’s 11 full-time and 8 part-time staff fielded 19,000 calls across the Orland Fire Protection District and the two additional contracted communities of Oak Forest and Calumet City.

Currently, nine dispatchers—3 full-time and 6 part-time—operate out of Fire Station 1 in Lemont. The district fields roughly 3,000 calls per year

The board of commissioners will consider the move Thursday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m., at Fire Station 1, 15900 New Ave., in Lemont.

thanks Dan

Village of Oak Lawn considers outsourcing dispatching (more)

Nov 22

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | Comments off

More on the previous post about the Village of Oak Lawn’s Emergency Communications Center from a very lengthy article in the Oak Lawn Leaf.

It appears the Village of Oak Lawn will move to outsource the 911 Emergency Dispatchers to a private company on Tuesday November 26th, despite pleas by the emergency operator’s union, the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, to honor its existing contract. Oak Lawn’s Village Manager Larry Deetjen has recommended that the Village outsource the 911 emergency dispatchers to Norcomm Public Safety Communications, based in Leyden Township. The village’s four supervisors in the department would be retained by the company. The 20 union dispatchers would be terminated, but allowed to apply for their positions at a reduced salary. They would also lose their pensions in the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.

According to Ronald Cicinelli, the attorney representing the Metropolitan Alliance of Police, the Village of Oak Lawn contacted the union only 38 days after agreeing to the 2012 contract and threatened to outsource the jobs unless the union agreed to concessions because of a “financial crisis”.

Cicinelli, in response to inquiries from the Oak Lawn Leaf, said that the Village of Oak Lawn Attorneys contacted the union “saying, in essence, that the village would have to outsource dispatching services if the union did not agree to help with the dire financial situation that it had not disclosed until approving the aforementioned labor contract.”

According to Cicinelli, the union officials and village officials met and the village attached a dollar amount to the financial crisis that the village claimed totaled $1.l million dollars. “The telecommunicators (union members) were asked to submit concessions that total $369,000.00 to help alleviate the crisis, with the remainder of the shortage being rectified by increasing the costs to the towns served by the center,” said Cicinelli…. the Village of Oak Lawn reportedly sent the other municipalities it serves through the 911 operating system, invoices with the increased costs.

The negotiations broke down further according to the union when the Village informed the union that the entire 3.8 million dollar budget would be spent by the end of July. Cicinelli claimed that “it is obvious that cost overruns can be attributed, in part, to overtime created by supervisory personnel who no longer count as working dispatchers and the failure to replace three dispatchers who either retired or resigned.” According to Violetto’s letter, the Village’s Emergency Communications Director, Kathy Hansen requested in the last contract that the three dispatchers be called team leaders and not be counted in the manpower numbers to operate the room. Violetto claims that the three team leaders are now administrative help to Hansen and questioned the need for three people to provide administrative help to the director. The savings in returning the three supervisors to the manpower count would save the village $152,232.20 a year according to the union. Hansen stated department overtime through August 2013 stood at $124,855. The union has claimed that the overtime is attributed in part to overtime created by the new supervisory personnel and the failure of the village to replace three open dispatcher positions.

At the November 6, 2013 budget meeting, Oak Lawn’s emergency communications director Kathy Hansen said that due to revenue lost from state-regulated phone surcharges as users switch to cell phones, the department is losing revenue while expenses continue to rise. Industry experts estimate that the total phones used in any municipality are split with 70% cell phone use and 30% landline use.

Currently, the telecommunications tax is only assessed on landlines. The village received over one million dollars in the telecommunications tax last year. If the tax is extended by the federal government as expected in the summer, the revenue to the village would exceed $2.3 million dollars thereby solving the problem. By outsourcing to Norcomm, the village claims it would save $446,000 a year for the next two years.

thanks Dan

Tags: 911 Emergency Dispatchers, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Metropolitan Alliance of Police, Norcomm Public Safety Communications, Oak Lawn FIre Department, Oak Lawn Village Manager Larry Deetjen, Oak Lawn’s emergency communications center, Oak Lawn’s emergency Communications Director Kathy Hansen, Ronald Cicinelli