911 Board Hears Possible Progress on Eliminating Status Zero Situations

The Effingham County 911 Board Tuesday heard of a plan hoped to address Status Zero calls in the county.

Status Zero calls occur when Abbott EMS, the county's contracted ambulance service provider, doesn't have a rig in service in the county. Those calls can occur due to all rigs being out on other calls or when they are handling transfers. 

Effingham County Sheriff Dave Mahon reported on a meeting he and City Police Chief Jason McFarland held with Abbott's Jeff Odenthal as well as 911 System Administrator Tina Daniels and City Telecommunications Supervisor Billie Bales. Under the plan, Abbott will contact another ambulance service if they don't have a rig available to answer a call. The first option will be Rural Med, a service that has transferred its base of operations to St. Elmo and will have a rig available in Funkhouser in case no Abbott rig is available. If Rural Med can't handle the call, Abbott will contact Jasper County Ambulance Service. If that isn't an option, Abbott has a rig-based at Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Coles County that will be contacted. If none of those are available, Abbott will contact local telecommunicators who are to contact ambulance services in Neoga, Greenup, or Toledo to handle the call.

Odenthal and Mahon also said Abbott is making a BLS, or basic unit, available to handle transfers to keep their ALS, or advanced units, available for emergency calls. Odenthal acknowledged that they are working to hire additional workers to handle the additional unit, saying some employees are working overtime to staff the rig at present.

The agreement is to be reduced to writing to assure the system will stay in place. 

There was also discussion of Abbott utilizing one of two dispatching systems to aid rigs in reaching their destinations in a timely fashion. One is the Spillman system that the County and City use for dispatching. The other is the I Am Responding system being used by several fire departments in the county to aid with dispatching. Odenthal said that Abbott will check on both options, although I Am Responding might prove the better option since ambulance crews can load that system onto their tablets so they can carry it with them in their rigs on calls.

Also Tuesday, the 911 Board approved the $1,860 cost of making a dispatching frequency available for use by both Rural Med and by Lakeside EMS of Effingham for when they are handling calls. The two services will utilize the former Effingham City-County Ambulance Service frequency.