 Mon, Sep 08, 2008 04:43 AM
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2008-07-03  MORE TOP STORIES | Alpharetta controls ambulance dispatching
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| | by Bob Pepalis | |  |
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| | | Regus (click for larger version) | |
July 09, 2008
www.northfulton.com
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| 'You have to understand that 8-minute response is for ambulance. We always send the first responder, which gets there quicker.'
Bob Regus
Alpharetta City Administrator |
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ALPHARETTA -- A new city dispatching system that includes GPS tracking and routing of emergency vehicles will include Rural Metro ambulances that serve Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton and Roswell.
Fulton County agreed to let Alpharetta control dispatching of all ambulances north of the Chattahoochee River. That will allow the city to include the Rural Metro ambulances on its new system, which lets dispatchers track where all emergency vehicles are and suggests the best routes based on location of vehicles, traffic, distance and trip times.
Keith Sanders, assistant director for Public Safety, said a Rural Metro manager will be assigned to city's the command and control center to assist in the posting.
He said Alpharetta will continue to dispatch ambulances within the city and Roswell will dispatch ambulances within its boundaries. But Johns Creek and Milton ambulance service will be dispatched through the Alpharetta center.
"There is no fiscal impact to the city," Sanders said.
"The biggest difference is reducing the uncertainty and time of locating where that ambulance is within our city," he said.
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At present, Rural Metro has one radio channel to dispatch all county-wide ambulance traffic outside of Alpharetta, which is too much to handle, according to Fulton County Emergency Manager Rocky Moore. The Public Safety Department's report said Moore proposed an EMS North dispatch channel for the four North Fulton cities.
Some changes will occur in the next two years, as Johns Creek plans to enter into a 911 Center agreement with Sandy Springs in 2009, and Milton's emergency dispatching will be handled directly by Alpharetta in October.
The agreement is in addition to the subsidy North Fulton cities are paying Rural Metro to guarantee an 8-minute response time for ambulances at least 90 percent of the time. Alpharetta's share of the subsidy in this fiscal year will be $135,000.
"You have to understand that 8-minute response is for ambulance. We always send the first responder, which gets there quicker," said City Administrator Bob Regus.
"Just telling me they'll have GIS transponders on them [ambulances], that's huge," said City Councilman John Monson.
Fulton may not have agreed to give up control in North Fulton if Alpharetta was not installing a new command and control center for its dispatchers. The $500,000 center, which is nearing completion, occupies former training rooms in a wing of the police headquarters at the Old Milton-Westside parkways intersection.
City residents will get their first chance to view the command and control center Monday, July 12, when council shifts its regular workshop meeting to the site.
Council also approved an $82,000 contract with CrownTech Computer Services for audio-visual equipment for the center. The monitors will integrate with the center's phone and emergency management systems, allowing the display of its mapping system, feeds from traffic cameras, police car cameras and eventually fire trucks, in addition to dispatch status, caller information and other data.
A key reason CrownTech received the bid in addition to equipment quality was because it listed bimonthly maintenance and cleaning in its bid proposal, something no other bidder included.
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