"911, what's your emergency?"
Although we all know what number to call in the event of an emergency, very few know what happens on the other end of the line.
When a call is made to 911, the call is directed to one of three Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) in Saskatchewan: Prince Albert, Saskatoon and Regina.
The operator will ask the caller whether the emergency requires a fire engine, ambulance or the police.
If the police are needed, the call is then transferred to the RCMP Occurrence Call Centre in Regina, where an operator will come on the line, determine the nature of the emergency and radio the nearest RCMP or police.
If the fire department or an ambulance is needed, the call is transferred to one of four dispatch centers in Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert or Yorkton.
The operator will verify the address if the call is from a landline or ascertain the location of the caller and relay the message to the appropriate emergency medical service (EMS) or fire department. The operator will typically remain on the line with the caller until the fire engine or ambulance arrives at the scene.
Effective Aug. 1, Med-Com Comprehensive Dispatch Systems, Inc, the dispatch centre in Yorkton, closed its doors, leaving the province with three dispatch centers.
Dennis Nelson, who owns Med-Com, said the decision was difficult to make.
"The number one biggest issue is my staff and having to let them go," said Nelson. "Great people work here."
Med-Com currently employs nine people, and handles 25,000 calls every year.
Nelson explained the decision to close was due to the Saskatoon Health Region, one of Med-Com's biggest clients, realigning their services into a centralized dispatch, the MD Ambulance service in Saskatoon.
The resulting loss in revenue would have made it economically unfeasible to continue operating, as the increase in price for Med-Com's remaining clients would have made the service too expensive.
Although Med-Com is finished, Nelson is confident in the abilities of the remaining three dispatch centers.
"There are three very good dispatch services in the province. They are going to do as good a job as we have done," he said.
The Town of Battleford was one of Med-Com's clients, using their dispatch center for fire dispatch. As of Aug. 1, the Prince Albert dispatch will be handling Battleford and has already handled North Battleford for many years. Both Battleford and North Battleford are part of Prairie North Health Region, which uses MD in Saskatoon for EMS dispatch.
Nelson recalled a time when smaller centers all had their own dispatches for fire and EMS, with firefighters often having the phone in their homes at night to take emergency calls.
It was one of these small dispatch centers that Med-Com was created from, initially taking calls only for EMS in Yorkton. They developed their own computer automated dispatch service and were asked by the local health district if they would dispatch for some of the smaller communities in the district.
"It kept growing like that until we built our service to what it is today," said Nelson. "It was very gratifying."
At one time, Nelson explained, Med-Com covered EMS dispatch for the Saskatoon Health Region, the Sunrise Health Region and almost a third of the province, as well as covering fire dispatch across the province.
He added that Med-Com existed before there were health regions, and when regions were formed, many of the communities that joined a health region with a dispatch centre switched to that dispatch centre.
The Moose Jaw dispatch centre suffered a similar fate, closing their doors not too long before Med-Com.
Nelson, who, besides being the owner of Med-Com is also the CEO and general manager for Crestview Ambulance, willbe busy with EMS.
"I've been in the business of saving lives for over 40 years with EMS, and [Med-Com] was just one more part of it," he said.
"My ambulance service has been here for 37 years, and it will be here for another 37 years," said Nelson.
