9
Jun
2010
HELP! WHEN YOU NEED 911 RIGHT NOW
I hope none of you ever needs this information but I know better….someday, someone will want to know how to get the fastest response from a 911 call. A friend of mine recently went from being a paramedic in the ambulance to dispatching. Very interesting what she told me…..what the caller doesn’t know is that the dispatcher is a real multitasker. While she is asking you questions that she HAS to ask, she is sending out the information to get the ambulance to you….but it doesn’t sound that way from your end of the phone. What sounds like needless questions to a hysterical caller is verifications so help arrives as quickly as possible. Addresses MUST be verified even though help is already on the way. Call back numbers MUST be repeated so there is no drop in communications in this day of bad cell phone coverage. If you ever have to call 911 do so knowing that the dispatchers’ questions will help, not hinder. Just to make the job harder a surprising number of people cannot remember their addresses…believe it or not. Guru