Richmond Ambulance Authority wants to talk to 911 callers again
The Richmond Ambulance Authority is pushing to get back more control over 911 calls it responds to after a change was made last summer to have the city’s Department of Emergency Communications be the primary office that speaks directly with callers.
The shift is one of “several things that we need to unwind” from Mayor Levar Stoney’s administration concerning the authority, RAA head Chip Decker told City Council’s Public Safety Committee Tuesday.
While all 911 calls have long been routed through Richmond’s Emergency Communications Center, Decker said that historically, responders at the ambulance authority were routinely looped into calls to speak directly with people seeking emergency help.
Beginning in July, however, the Department of Emergency Communications began handling all of the communication with callers. Information typed into the emergency response system by Communications Center staff is then transmitted to the ambulance authority for responders to be dispatched.
“We don’t get the caller anymore,” Decker told the committee.
RAA maintains that while the change hasn’t slowed down response times, it gives emergency responders less detailed information to prioritize their calls and ensure they provide “the right response to the patient’s condition.” If RAA needs more information from a caller, a responder has to call them back.
“I’m not happy about this,” said Councilor Reva Trammell (8th District), who along with Councilor Stephanie Lynch (5th District) said she has received numerous complaints about people being put on hold when they call 911.
Department of Emergency Communications staff “have so many calls that they have to take,” said Trammell. “If we can take some of that away from that department and give it back to you, that’s what we need to do.”
Lynch asked the city to provide the committee with data on call outcomes over six-month periods so it could compare how each system had performed.
“Having those data points would certainly be helpful in helping us make a decision either way,” she said.
