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SCC Enhances Its E9-1-1 CPE
SCC has expanded its E9-1-1 service to allow the Boulder, CO, company's NDSC (National Data Services Center) to more efficiently monitor and change PSAP customer premise equipment (CPE). The enhancement allows the NDSC to provide call management capabilities to the CPE, proactively monitor a PSAP's CPE performance, 9-1-1 traffic, and call patterns from a central site, and generate consolidated reports detailing complete call activity.
SCC's Subscriber/ALI service gives subscribers the ability to add unique information to their 9-1-1 record, such as foreign language preference or medical condition. The CPE, based on that specific information, can then provide enhanced call handling features, thereby improving emergency call response. For example, the CPE may route a call immediately to a foreign language speaking calltaker.
SCC has initially deployed these enhancements in a trial with Plant Equipment; the company is also negotiating with other CPE providers to implement this enhanced PSAP interface.
"This functionality represents a tremendous advantage to public safety agencies and telephone service providers," said Stephen Meer, SCC's chief technology officer. "The ability to handle 9-1-1 calls in a more individual manner dramatically enhances the level of service that consumers can expect to receive when they place an emergency call. In addition, SCC's NDSC will have the ability to monitor and respond to CPE alarms in real time, which is a critical requirement in the 9-1-1 environment."
HTE Partners with Software Corporation of America
HTE, Inc, and Software Corporation of America (SCA) have formed an alliance which will lead to improved public safety software capabilities for law enforcement agencies nationwide. Both companies have enhanced their primary products so that they will work together to provide state-of-the-art wireless capabilities to public safety officials.
"With this combined effort," said Brian Heafy, HTE Director of Public Safety, "we will put the power of state and federal law enforcement information instantaneously at the fingertips of officers in their squad cars. Because the system uses a wireless mobile connection, it provides information such as arrest records and license plate checks directly to officers in a more timely manner."
SCA's Premier MDT software, which was enhanced under the partnership with HTE, is a customizable wireless application for the public safety industry. In the future, the new SCA product will provide a means for field personnel using various HTE applications to wirelessly transfer data from the field to the host system.
Public Safety Consultants Trains Peoria PSAP in Customer Service
The Peoria, IL, Emergency Communications Center has joined forces with Public Safety Consultants, of Waukegan, to provide specialized training for the PSAP's telecommunicators. The training will incorporate Public Safety Consultant's new training modules on Customer Service in Public Safety Communications and will instruct telecommunicators how to handle different types of problems and people over the telephone and in person. "In this day and age of public safety entities realizing that the citizens we work for are actually customers, we need to use the techniques that commercial establishments have been using for years to provide first-rate service," said T. G. Mieure of Public Safety Consultants (847/244-1132).
9-1-1 Consultant Service
Six former emergency managers for the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site nuclear facility have formed an emergency services consulting firm that will offer emergency management services to SRS and to municipalities around the nation planning to install or upgrade 9-1-1 emergency systems or emergency operations centers. The new company, Emergency Services integrators (ESi), has been formed by G. James Fulton and five other former Westinghouse Savannah River Company employees who have been directing the operation and upgrading of the EOC and the 9-1-1 center at this South Carolina facility. Fulton said that ESi can provide efficient and cost-effective emergency management capabilities because of the extensive computer integration of communications and information functions.
Physio-Control Defib's on the Streets in Boston
Boston EMS has forged an innovative partnership among local firefighters, police, and other first responders in an all-out effort to reduce deaths caused by the nation's number one killer, sudden cardiac arrest. The city purchased 100 state-of-the-art automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) from Physio-Control International, and deployed them to fire and police units. The new units join 85 Physio-Control First Medic AEDs which have been used by Boston EMS for several years.
Boston PD has equipped strategic police units with AEDs, and two major Boston high-rise office buildings, the John Hancock Tower and the Federal Reserve Bank Building, have equipped and trained onsite security to use the AEDs. Through the new technology and additional training, Boston officials expect to significantly increase the city's cardiac arrest survival rate. Boston's rate for all survivors has risen from 16 percent in 1994 to 24 percent in 1996, second only to Seattle's 34 percent.
Boston Fire Commissioner Martin Pierce noted: "All 1,650 firefighters are now equipped as first responders with CPR and defibrillation training." |