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Show Central Dispatch System Could Become a Reality Upgrading of the emergency com-munciations network in Garfield County may become a reality if a proposed centralized dispatch system materializes. Utah's Emergency Medical Services Division has been the recipient of grants which can provide similar benefits for many areas of the state. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare provided the grants to the State Department of Health which, in turn, asked the EMS to design communciation plans for certain areas of the state with problems of communication in emergency situations. The grant for Garfield County, which must be matched on a 50-50 basis by the county, will provide for paging capabilities in the eastern end of the Bob Welti county, including Escalante, Boulder, Henrieville, Cannonville, and Tropic by using a transmitter on Barney Top mountain which is controlled by a UHF transmitter at Garfield Memorial Hospital. Panguitch paging capabilities will continue to utilize the local EMS transmitter now stationed at the hospital. The proposed centralized system also has capabilities for two-way communications throughout most of the county by utilizing the local government frequency with a repeater on top of Barney Top and a base station at the hospital. The agreement which the county will sign for obtaining the equipment states that the equipment will be used for emergency medical service only unless prior permission is obtained from the State Department of Health for other use. This permission can be obtained if it can be demonstrated that utilization of the system in other area will improve, rather than impede, the quality of emergency medical communications. Currently all emergency medical services dispatching at Garfield Memorial Hospital is done by hospital personnel who are not trained dispatchers. Although they have demonstrated a marginal adequacy they cannot perform up to the expectations of a full time trained dispatcher, If such a dispatching center can be developed where a centralized dispatch area is designated and staffed with trained dispatchers, the state EMS will consider allowing the equipment to' be used for other county agencies. Emergency fire dispatching in the county suffers similarly from a lack of adequate communications services. Although the county has committed funds and equipment for fighting fires throughout the county, the equipment is only effective if it can be dispatched rapidly to the scene of a fire. Lack of a central fire telephone number causes confusion for citizens and wastes precious moments in trying to notify volunteers. Although fire sirens are useful in notifying volunteers, they must have a point of activation such as a centralized dispatch location, and are not nearly as effective as radio pagers. Presently, only the Panguitch Fire (Continued on Page 2) Central Dispatch System . . . (Continued from Page 1) Department has a telephone number which can be utilized 24 hours a day with assurance that someone will answer. The number terminates in the homes of several firemen and also in the hospital at the nurses' station, guaranteeing that someone will be available to activate the alarm if the other telephones are unmanned. Currently, law enforcement dispatching is a combination of a private telephone, multiple number listings, part-time dispatching from the sheriff's office, 16 hours a day dispatching from Richfield on the Highway Patrol Frequency, and eight hours a day from Cedar City dispatching on the same frequency. The telephone access for the public is often confusing under the present arrangements. Further, the dispatching on the Highway Patrol frequency which rotates from Richfield in the daytime to Cedar City early in the morning often means that those dispatching do not have a first hand knowledge of and familiarity with the terrain, conditions, and problems which law enforcement officers face in Garfield County. In order to be contacted, personnel must be either in their homes or in their vehicles equipped with radios. Pagers could eliminate this problem. County road crews could also benefit from a centralized dispatch system. Currently crews have almost no communciations capabilities, and, at the most, very inadequate means of keeping in touch with the rest of the county when their work takes them into remote and rugged areas of the county. No agency or government entity in the county is presently capable of funding a full time dispatching center so a pooling of resources is being suggeted, with Bob McCullough, operations offer for the Garfield County Ambulance spearheading the project by gathering data and developing the proposed joint plan. It is felt that the ultimate control of the common facility must rest with the county commissioners with policymaking representative communciations board reporting to the commissioners. Actual operation of the system would need to be under the direction of managed organization which could contract lor needed services as delineated by the Communications Board. Tne Garfield County Ambulance service will have a functioning dispatch system regardless of weather other agencies join in on a cooperative basis, since new equipment will be installed at the hospital for its use under the grant. McCullough, in his report, notes that the quality of dispatching can be im proved upon and made sigificantly better if a centralized system is adopted. It will benefit not only the hospital emergency services and county ambulances, but every agency involved, his report states. Garfield Memorial Hospital is willing to committ the equivalent of one full time employee for eight hours a day, five days a week with the dispatcher also operating the hospital switchboard and functioning as a ward clerk bet ween dispatching duties. The sheriff's department currently employs one full time person eight hours a day, five days a week and would be expected to contribute this individual's time to the dispatching function. The employee would have to locate physically at the hopsital but would be able to accomplish paperwork for the Sheriff's Department during periods between dispatching. A remote transmitter would be located at the sheriff's office for the convenience of the law enforcement officers. Panguitch City Police department would need to commit to a similar arrangement with other communities and the fire departments also expected to contribute in some way as they became involved with the system. Disatchers would be expected to follow protocal regarding which communciations functions would be most appropriate to do in which order. A proposed priority list includes in first place, an officer under fire, fire dispatch and direction, ambulance dispatch and direction, emergency law enforcement dispatch, ambulance communication with physician or , hospital, route in law enforcement dispatch or communciations, routine radio communciations with ambulance or fire units, or county road crews, airport intercom radio and hospital switch board. All mobile units operating on the frequency controlled by the dispatch center would have to observe the same priority list and surrender control oi the airways to any mobile unit or to the dispatch center when calls of highe: priority were in progress. Mobile units communciation at the same time with equal priority would be asked to use courtesy in waiting for their turn to use the air. |