According to a 2025 analysis by the American College of Surgeons, emergency calls in rural communities take an average of 20 minutes longer to get a response than those in urban areas. That disparity, the study’s author wrote, can “be the difference between life and death for many patients.”
In November, emergency services around Randolph County began handling all fire-related calls under one roof, the second phase of a consolidation they hope will simplify emergency response and reach residents faster.
Shelby Creed is the 911 director at Moberly Joint Communications, the facility which now handles all law enforcement and fire-related calls for the county. She said the consolidation has helped cut down on response times by eliminating call transfers between emergency service departments.
“With us doing all of this and consolidating completely, that will help streamline knowing where our resources are at all times, and knowing how many resources we have available, and it also saves seconds of getting those resources sent out,” she said.
In June 2026, Moberly Joint Communications will take over all health emergency-related calls from the Randolph County Ambulance District. The service has already been handling all law enforcement calls, since the integration first began in 2003.
Right now, anyone calling with a medical emergency in Randolph County will first be sent to the call center, which will then transfer the call to county ambulance district, where the caller will have to repeat their information. Creed said that avoiding that reroute saves time in situations where every second is critical.
“You place one call, you tell one dispatcher what you have going on and what resources you need, and then that one agency is going to be getting all of those resources sent out,” she said.
Creed also said the consolidation will help ease staffing concerns across the county’s different emergency services. Currently, she said, the ambulance district has no dispatchers. Instead, EMT staff have to take turns answering the phone.
“That's going to free up EMTs and paramedics that can then go fill a truck,” she said, “Versus having to sit there and dispatch ambulances.”
