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Spokane Announces Effort to Streamline 911 Call Center Processes
One of the most important functions of a call center is emergency dispatch. 911 emergency call centers around the country help keep communities safe by taking calls and referring them to the right department, whether it’s for law enforcement, fire, medical help, or other types of emergencies. But many of these call centers are configured in a way that simply isn’t efficient in the twenty-first century. They often act as clearing houses for calls, forwarding the calls to the most appropriate department, which means emergency callers must often repeat their information to many different people.
In Spokane, Washington, officials are trying a new configuration, according to a recent story by local news affiliate KREM2. A joint emergency call center known as the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications (SREC) center is trying to streamline the process by having the call receiver ask all the questions and pass on the information to the dispatcher. The caller would only have to speak with one person, not ever talking with the dispatcher directly.
"Seconds mean everything to emergency responders and by going to this new streamlined system, lives will be saved,” said Spokane Valley Fire Chief Bryan Collins at a recent press conferencing announcing that the change, which was first announced in May, has gone into effect.
Not everyone is a fan of the new process, however. Tim Archer, who heads the union representing Spokane fire dispatchers, noted that dispatchers often have specialized knowledge, and bypassing them could actually slow down the process, eliminating their ability to ask questions, particularly as the nature of emergencies can change while the caller is on the phone with the dispatcher.
"That real time interaction with the wheels rolling, while our [dispatcher] is in contact with the patient or the caller has been lost," he told KREM2. “"It's already caused some lag time in calls being transferred to our dispatchers, as well as the appropriate resources being dispatched. Or even more importantly, like I said, that real-time interaction where the resources are upgraded or downgraded en route.”
Edited by Maurice Nagle
