Concerns voiced about 911 dispatching service

Aug. 31--After complaints about dispatching issues at Kentucky State Police Post 10 were voiced at a meeting of the Harlan County E-911 Advisory Board, board member and KSP Communications Supervisor Raymond Day said he will look into the matter and report back to the board.

Bledsoe Volunteer Fire Department Chief and board member Barbara Burkhart said she received a complaint from a call they were dispatched to saying the patient's family called 911 and requested the fire department be dispatched, due to a patient having a seizure, before the ambulance got there. She said they were not paged for 13 minutes after that call was made to KSP.

"That's not the only complaint we've gotten from patients calling 911 requesting we be paged out and we've not been," said Burkhart. "The ambulance service is being paged out, but the Bledsoe Volunteer Fire Department can respond faster than the ambulance service. We can assist until the ambulance service does arrive."

Day said part of the late page is there is a procedure 911 staff has to adhere to.

"There are certain questions we have to get answered. Then we get the ambulance en route. Then we go back to the caller to finish all the other stuff before we do anything else," said Day. "This is protocol. We have to do this first and sometimes it takes a while. I know a lot of people who call 911 are irritated by the questions we ask, but we have to ask. A lot of people hang up on us."

Burkhart said she understands protocol; she is just passing along complaints being voiced to them from patients asking that the fire department be paged.

Day said he will look into the matter, correct any problems and report back to the board.

Reach Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510, ext. 115, nsizemore@civitasmedia.com

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