Every minute counts: Response times drop with new dispatch system

In the past year, firefighters are making it to accidents and fires faster, which they credit with saving lives.

Their response times have been cut by a minute or more with a dispatching system that alerts them of emergency calls sooner after someone calls 911.

When the county first began using the system in the fall of 2015, the goal was to cut response times by about 30 seconds. Now, they have at least doubled that, Johnson County 911 Director Ryan Rather said.

And White River Township Fire Department Chief Jeremy Pell thinks that one minute could even be low.

While lower response times are important, the real payoff is how getting to a call faster impacts residents, Pell said.

For someone having a heart attack or a stroke, one minute of time is critical to saving brain or heart tissue from damage, he said.

“It can be the difference between going home to your family and going to a long-term care facility,” he said.

The faster response times are due to a dispatch notification system the county began using in 2015, which automatically notifies fire departments of an emergency while the dispatcher is still on the phone with a 911 caller. The county had to create more than 8,000 audio files of street names, businesses and cities to teach the system the locations emergency workers could be sent to.

Now, dispatchers don’t have to put a 911 caller on hold to contact the fire departments. Instead, the dispatcher enters the location of the emergency and what is going on into the system, which can identify what firetrucks or ambulances are needed and alert the fire departments.

That automated alert system cuts down the time between when someone calls 911, and when fire departments are notified, meaning emergency workers can be on their way in as little as 20 to 30 seconds after the call comes in, Rather said.

And the dispatcher can get any other details needed while emergency workers are already on their way, Rather said.

The impact emergency workers are noticing is more lives being saved, Pell said.

That could mean by emergency workers getting someone having a stroke or heart attack to the hospital faster, or reviving someone with Narcan who is overdosing, he said.

“We are seeing some real life every day examples and impacts being made in people’s lives by getting them to the hospital faster,” Pell said.

Getting there faster also is important in a fire, since they rapidly grow. Recently, the fire department has had few large fires, because they are getting to the home or building when the fire is still in the attic or ceiling, and hasn’t spread, Pell said.

Pell hopes that is due to both fire prevention, and the faster response times.

“It’s a tremendous boost to quality of life,” Pell said.