Whitfield County E9-1-1 implemented the APCO Institute Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Program.
In addition to serving Whitfield County, the agency provides call taking and/or dispatching for all 9-1-1 calls for the municipalities of Dalton, Tunnel Hill, Varnell, and Cohutta with 28 call takers and five administrators. Whitfield County E9-1-1 averages 182,000 calls for service per year and 300,000 calls in all.
The APCO Institute EMD Program is based on national standards and provides agencies with a systematic way to manage emergency medical service resources in an organized and effective manner.
APCO’s EMD Program "enables trained dispatchers – through the use of guidecards and software – to quickly assess a caller’s emergency situation and to provide consistent, medically approved assistance over the phone while trained EMS responders are en route to the scene."
"Often, the immediate medical assistance that an EMD-certified dispatcher provides can mean the difference between life and death,” says APCO Institute Director Julie Ray. “Since APCO established its EMD Program in 1990, our customers have related countless stories of lives being saved because of the program.”
Whitfield County E9-1-1 Deputy Director Ashlee Zahn agrees that APCO’s EMD Program has made a difference in her communications center, saying that the program “has allowed everyone to provide critical help to those in need with less confusion, and this helps us to provide more effective and efficient service to our community.”