Patricia Anderson is with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department in California. Today, is our country’s first first responders celebration for the importance of their role in saving lives and improving the public safety of the communities they serve.
In Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center is ground zero for all 911 calls in the county.
According to Allan Pratt, Emergency Operations Director, if a medical emergency call comes into 911, it is transferred to MedStat’s dispatch center where medically-trained dispatchers can assist callers. For police, fire, or other types of calls, a county dispatcher will assist the caller.
There are currently five dispatchers working at the Montgomery Emergency Operations Center, three full-time dispatchers and two part-time dispatchers. Pratt said he is currently working to fill an open part-time position.
Pratt, who also serves Montgomery County as coroner, has been director of the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center since 2002, after working as a dispatcher for the Winona Police Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol. As director, he oversees the operations of the center and also fills in as needed as a 911 dispatcher.
Marilyn Knight, deputy director of the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center, has been a dispatcher in Montgomery County for 24 years – working at the Winona Police Department before joining the county’s dispatch office.
Also dispatching for Montgomery County are Dakota Gant, Seiara Travis, Howard Phillips, and Janelle Harvey.
The Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center may get up to 1,000 calls per week. They receive emergency calls for five fire departments, three municipal police departments, and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department.
“People need to realize that the municipalities [police departments] and the sheriff’s department transfer their calls to us [after hours],” Pratt said. “We take administrative line calls, trees down, whatever happens.”
Pratt said calls can range between homicides to suicides to people lost in the woods to people missing.
“We take all types of calls, and we have to be certified through the state of Mississippi,” Pratt said.
Marilyn Knight said dispatching is “what I love doing.”
During Knight’s 24 years as a dispatcher, she said she has received more critical calls than she can remember, but one call will always stay with her.
Knight said a couple of days after her husband had stents inserted to assist his heart, she received a call at 911 that he had collapsed.
“I couldn’t freak out,” she said. “I had to remain calm and call MedStat and dispatch them to the house.”
Knight said her husband passed away two days later, and after a time, she returned to work at the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center.
“My first day back after his death was the [Montgomery County] school bus wreck,” Knight said.
Knight said she dispatches because she loves helping people, and as the first first responder to any emergency, she must remain calm and decide how to help the caller.
“It all starts here,” she said.
Lisa White, a dispatcher for MedStat, said a dispatcher is a caller’s lifeline until others can get to the scene and take over.
“[A caller] is calling you on the worst day of their life,” White said.
Winona is also the home to MedStat’s Control Center, staffed with medically-trained dispatchers that dispatch emergency medical calls for nine counties in Mississippi – Montgomery, Carroll, Leflore, Sunflower, Humphreys, Holmes, Attala, Holmes, Choctaw, and Monroe.
According to Dave Eldridge, operations director for MedStat, when his dispatchers receive a medical emergency call, they dispatch the closest ambulance to the scene, and they stay on the phone with the caller to walk the caller through any treatment that can be given before the ambulance arrives.
“If it is warranted – heart attack, stroke, baby – they will stay on the phone for as long as they need to,” Eldridge said.
Each dispatcher is “vigorously trained” to handle medical emergency calls, and each dispatcher must be EMD-certified (Emergency Medical Dispatcher).
Eldridge said dispatchers in the MedStat Control Center are coordinating with an average of 25 ambulances each day, and if needed, they work with medical helicopter services.
“When we see a need for an aircraft – if it triggers that protocol – we alert the closest most appropriate helicopter,” Eldridge said.
A patient with a stroke or heart attack or experienced trauma will warrant the use of a helicopter to the appropriate medical facility.
“We take patients to the most appropriate hospital to start the healing process,” Eldridge said.
The MedStat Operations Center receives an average of 70 to 100 calls per day from the nine county area. During the day, there are three dispatchers working the phones, and at night there are two. Dispatchers use Computer Aided Dispatch equipment with state of the art mapping, GPS for ambulance location, weather and traffic data and so on.
“There are only three ambulance centers in the state that have dispatch systems like this,” Eldridge said. “One on the coast, one in Jackson, and one in Winona, Mississippi.”
Tuesday, of the three dispatchers on duty – white, Theresa Jones of Winona, and Cassie McElroy -- they had a combined 38 years of experience.
White said at MedStat, the dispatchers are like family. If an emergency occurs, all staff flock to the operations center to assist.
“We’re a family,” White said. “It’s in your blood. When one hurts or one needs help, everyone comes.”
Jones said, “We love what we do. We are proud of what we do. When people ask me what I do, I am proud to tell them.”
