West Central Dispatch Joins Elite Group

By Jeremy Coumbes on March 17, 2022 at 11:41am

The West Central Illinois Joint Dispatch has earned national recognition for being one of the best of the best.

West Central Joint ETSB 911 has been recognized by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch® (IAEDTM) as an Accredited Center of Excellence, or ACE, for emergency fire dispatching.

The IAED said in a press release today, that West Central Joint ETSB 911 is the 60th Fire ACE in the world. West Central Joint ETSB 911 is one of only two Medical Fire ACEs in Illinois. There are now 29 Medical / Fire ACEs in the world.

Jacksonville/Morgan County Emergency Management Director, and West Central Joint ETSB 911 Coordinator Phil McCarty says there is a lengthy process for attaining ACE status.

This is an accreditation process that we go through for fire calls. We have three protocols that we use, police, fire, and EMS, and we currently are accredited in EMS, EMD, and EFD for fire. Our dispatchers go through training as well as quality assurance and overall program assessment to meet this.”

Staff photo courtesy of West Central joint 911

West Central Joint ETSB 911 employs 14 Telecommunicators, answering and dispatching 9-1-1emergency calls for Morgan, Greene, and Calhoun Counties.

They handle radio traffic for Law Enforcement, Fire Departments, and EMS Agencies, as well answering non-emergency phone lines for all of Morgan County.

McCarty says the credit for attaining the accreditation lies solely with the dispatchers.

This means they are meeting all the points of accreditation of excellence. We review their calls to the accreditation standard and it tells us the effort that they put forth for the public. It really has nothing to do with myself, it’s the everyday telecommunicator that is answering calls and the work that they do. This is a clear definition of the work that they do and the effort they put in to meet the standard to get accredited, and really all we do is package it up and submit it off for review.”

IAED will present West Central Joint ETSB 911 with an Accreditation plaque that commemorates their achievement.

According to IAED, accreditation is valid for a three-year period, during which all standards must be upheld. Emergency communication centers can earn multiple accreditations, one for each emergency discipline they service, medical, fire, police, and emergency nurse triage.

Over 3,500 emergency communication centers worldwide use the medical, fire, police, and emergency nurse triage protocols developed and maintained by the IAED.

The protocol-based system—known as the Priority Dispatch SystemTM—is recognized as the standard of care and practice for emergency dispatch, and is used in 46 countries.