Arkansas Agencies Installing Smart 911 for Responders

By CHUCK BARTELS | September 12, 2012

Arkansas public safety agencies are installing a new system that enables dispatchers to better locate people in emergencies and work with greater medical information when responders answer a call.

The Smart 911 system is online in communities around the country but Arkansas is in the process of a rollout across the state.

Emergency responders say the system can be a helpful tool but isn’t a cure-all for gaps in information faced by paramedics.

People can register through the Smart 911 website and voluntarily provide information about medical conditions or other considerations that they’d want emergency medical technicians to know about. Users can open a free password protected account and update information, including medical conditions and changes of address.

Someone with allergies can list them so a dispatcher can convey that information to an EMT en route to an emergency. The information would automatically come up if a call is placed from a registered phone number.

Parents can provide contact information that dispatchers would see if 911 is dialed from a child’s phone.

The system contains a number of privacy protections.

Gary Gray, deputy coordinator and operations manager for North Little Rock’s emergency services, said 14 Arkansas communities are live in the Smart 911 system now.

“We started with northwest Arkansas and are making our way around (the state) clockwise,” Gray said.

Jonesboro is testing the system now. Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Carl Minden said the agency is in the process of installing the equipment and it’s expected to be running by the end of the week.

In central Arkansas, Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services, commonly known as MEMS, is already using the system. Organizers are waiting until the Smart 911 service is more commonly available before making a major push to inform the public that people can sign up.

MEMS Executive Director Jon Swanson said he’s a supporter of using the system but said he also has reservations.

“I’m concerned that folks have an unrealistic or false expectation of how this would be used,” Swanson said.

Swanson said the system can be helpful if a 911 call comes from an apartment complex from someone who has registered because it can make it easier to find the right apartment. Dispatchers can determine the general area from which a mobile phone call is placed. A dispatcher already sees the address of someone making a landline call.

Listing a person’s known medical conditions can be helpful, too, though paramedics are trained to have “no preconditioned idea of what they are going to find when they get there.”

“You may have a long and difficult history of diabetes and respiratory problems but that’s not the reason you called today,” he said.

Swanson said he wanted to stress the importance of keeping information current by people who sign up for the system.

The possibility that the information isn’t up to date makes it all the more important for paramedics to make an objective assessment, he said.

The Smart 911 system was developed by Rave Mobile Safety, a provider of safety-related software. The firm says user data can’t be accessed unless it is activated by a call, and then it is only accessible for 45 minutes. The company says user information is not shared outside the system.

With more people shedding land lines for cell phones, Swanson said he hopes the service becomes popular.

“We like it. We’re encouraging people to sign up. But they have to keep their information current,” Swanson said.

Was this article valuable?

Here are more articles you may enjoy.