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New Camden County Ambulance Dispatch Services Improve Response Times

Officials said a change in dispatching procedure in Camden County will cut down emergency response times.By Kelly Carlson (Columbia, Mo.)

St. John’s Ambulance Service is taking over the dispatching for Lake West Ambulance District. St. John’s uses a 911 trunk line that transfers information directly from an emergency call to a computer. Officials say medical personnel can use the information instantly.

Lake West’s old procedure took many steps to transfer the information, including an estimated four to six minutes of phone calls. EMS director of St. John’s Bob Patterson thinks Lake West did the right thing in asking for help.

 “Lake West Ambulance District reached out to us to see if we’d be interested in helping them with this service. I think they had tried to keep it in-house for a period of time and it’s just more efficient and cost effective to do it this way. ”

Lake West’s office manager says this change will also save close to $100,000 annually by eliminating four full time dispatcher positions.

As a born and raised Cleveland, Ohioan, Leanne Butkovic is no stranger to extreme fluctuating weather, frustrating sports teams and the charm of the Midwest and the people within it. She is a senior in the convergence journalism sequence at the University of Missouri-Columbia and has worked in several different newsrooms, yet has always had a penchant for radio. Since her freshman year, Leanne has produced her own music show on the university's student-run radio station, KCOU. She has also contributed to several magazines and their online affiliates based in Ohio, including Scene Magazine and multiple trade publications. She was an intern for VICE Media, working in their online documentary TV 'station' VBS.tv, in New York City this summer.