Officials said a change in dispatching procedure in Camden County will cut down emergency response times.By Kelly Carlson (Columbia, Mo.)
St. John’s Ambulance Service is taking over the dispatching for Lake West Ambulance District. St. John’s uses a 911 trunk line that transfers information directly from an emergency call to a computer. Officials say medical personnel can use the information instantly.
Lake West’s old procedure took many steps to transfer the information, including an estimated four to six minutes of phone calls. EMS director of St. John’s Bob Patterson thinks Lake West did the right thing in asking for help.
“Lake West Ambulance District reached out to us to see if we’d be interested in helping them with this service. I think they had tried to keep it in-house for a period of time and it’s just more efficient and cost effective to do it this way. ”
Lake West’s office manager says this change will also save close to $100,000 annually by eliminating four full time dispatcher positions.