Dispatchers on the front line of emergency response

LEWIS | There is a photo montage in Max Thwait's office at the Emergency Operations Center here. Endearingly titled "Max's First Baby," the framed photos were a gift for his answer to a call that came into the 9-1-1 center at Lewis several years ago. A pregnant woman in labor and alone in Long Lake had called for help and he, then an Essex County 9-1-1 dispatcher, helped her calmly and safely through the delivery, even as he sent an ambulance to her location. Thwaits has since been promoted to deputy director at Emergency Services, and with the retirement of Don Jaquish, he will serve as director until a formal hire is made. But his experience is built from the years he spent in the dispatch center, where the critical point of interface between a person in distress and fast access to services they need could make a difference between life and death. "She was alone, I was able to help her through the delivery, " Thwaits said of the call he'll not forget. And the outcome is a treasure in photos: Mom holding close to a sleepy, chubby baby wrapped in an infant blanket. It's not always the case that dispatchers remember calls that come in. In fact, training, Thwaits said, teaches dispatchers to leave their work at the operations center. There are 13 9-1-1 staff members in Lewis. Open and active all day, every day, the wide-open room glows with a cool, white glare from dozens of computer screens. Each dispatcher manages a bank of seven screens that connect to services in all towns and mutual aid options for every 9-1-1 address in Essex County plus cellular phone tower sites. They work with overhead lights in the room turned off to prevent screen glare and because there is so much light coming beaming from every station. For years, Thwaits was the 9-1-1 dispatch supervisor. And he's helped the technology evolve as resources for dispatchers have become more advanced. "We used to use the flip charts as a reference on every call," Thwaits said, pointing to a printed set of cards arranged flat with tabs that flip back to a specific set of question-and-response options. Emergency situations or possible medical conditions are arranged in alphabetical order under "Case Entry Protocol." So when a call comes in, a dispatcher begins with the question: What's your emergency? and then follows the answer, getting ever more specific toward a medical or emergency need. There are dozens of scenarios used in the Medical Priority Dispatch System flip cards, from Abdominal Pain or Allergies to Assault; from Heat/Cold Exposure to Pregnancy or Psychiatric emergencies; others reference protocol for stab or gunshot trauma. There is even a response protocol for "Unknown." But all of the information once conveyed on the manual flip cards has now moved into computer interface systems that automatically provide the follow-up questions while simultaneously accessing the nearest call response options, which can vary from fire, ambulance, police or mental health care, or some combination therein. "The technology has advanced to the point where we have maps to validate the location. We used to respond to calls with a handset," Thwaits said. Of course, none of this works until dispatch can locate the caller. And with the growing use of cell phones, technology has to improve within cell phones and on towers It is best when a caller can state their location, usually within the first few seconds of a call. But E-9-1-1, or Enhanced 9-1-1, has been integrated at Essex County's EOC. "We've moved from 'caller ID' to ANI/ALI information," Thwaits said. ANI is Automatic Number Identification and ALI is Automatic Location Identification. They combine in a relay system that automatically saves the callback number and activates the map. The system can find the location for a cell phone using triangulation. And technology is advancing with pseudo-ANI data from cell phone towers. Text 9-1-1 calls are becoming more frequent, as more people are eliminating landline telephones. But response starts with a human voice, a person answering the phone. In the response center, Dispatcher Bridgette Blemel has been answering 9-1-1 calls here for 14 years. The most important part of the job, she said, and Thwaits agreed, is maintaining a calm and steady line of inquiry, even if the call presents a dire emergency. She demonstrated how a "call" made to the Lewis dispatch location (for example) would come up on the screen immediately in front of her, and instantly provide a list of response options: fire, police, ambulance, or other services. These come up on the screen above. "And then I would begin to ask the series of questions," she said, typing in a hypothetical report of "fire." Another screen changes to show the fire company with jurisdiction and mutual aid departments. It all unspools specifically as each question is answered. "It's really important to remain calm and that helps the person on the phone also remain calm," Blemel said. "Training is a very important part of our job." Thwaits said the time allocation for dispatch to send a response is two minutes. Two minutes is not very much time. "But our goal is one minute," Thwaits said. Despite advances in technology, Thwaits said the 9-1-1 call volume in Essex County has not changed to any greater or lesser degree over the past decade. Calls from surrounding towns rise with the warmer weather, due in part to the return of summer residents and tourism. "Some Essex County towns nearly triple in size," he observed. In addition to the county dispatch operators, New York State Police has its Troop B dispatch teams located at the Public Safety Building in Lewis. These include call desks for Zone 1 in Plattsburgh, Zone 2 in Canton, and Zone 3 in Lewis. The state Department of Environmental Conservation dispatch center is located at Region 5 headquarters in Ray Brook. 'Headset heroes' Public Safety departments celebrate the second full week of April, which is April 11 to April 17 this year, as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Sponsored by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International, the week recognizes the work of thousands of men and women across America who respond to emergency calls and render life-saving assistance. According to APCO, week-long recognition was first introduced by Congressman Ed Markey in 1991 during the 102nd Congress and President Joe Biden when he served in the U.S. Senate in 1993. A presidential proclamation was made for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week by President Bill Clinton in 1994. The idea started in 1981 with Patricia Anderson of the Contra Costa County, California Sheriff's Office, who was caught unawares when administrators pushed all incoming calls to the dispatch desk in the afternoon. When she raised concern with the sheriff, he understood, and later brought in celebratory cake to thank his dispatch team, saying: "Happy Dispatcher Week." With that moment of gratitude, the department in Contra Costa County, California, launched a national celebration.

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