911 Communications & Technology

Whether designing new public safety communications centers, evaluating and implementing new technologies and systems, or consolidating regional call-taking and dispatching, the Fitch team can help.

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911 Communications & Technology Consulting

With ever-shrinking budgets, dispatch centers are being asked to do more with less. At the same time, the role of communications centers in the delivery of emergency services is evolving and technologies change more rapidly than ever. Many communities are currently grappling with major questions:

What is the right role?

  • Should the communications center only dispatch emergency services or are there other community needs that it can deliver?
  • What technology is worth investing in, and what’s the right price?
  • What performance standards should be established?
  • When is the best time to invest in the “next big thing”?
  • How should we staff and resource our communications center?
  • Should we consolidate with other agencies or jurisdictions?
  • If so, how should the center be governed to ensure accountability?

The Fitch & Associates team understands. We’ve assisted hundreds of clients by remembering a basic fact: Systems are built on people, processes and technologies. The best approach involves carefully addressing all three. If you simply change your technology but fail to consider process and human factors, your chances of success are very low.

Our consultants have:

  • Helped large, hospital-based EMS systems design, build and staff a communications center that dispatches multiple agencies throughout the region
  • Led multiple successful client accreditation projects
  • Assessed stakeholder perceptions of a regional consolidated 911 communications system in a major metropolitan location
  • Managed a communication center for a large four-city system to facilitate systemwide changes
  • Benchmarked call-taking and dispatch operations and established a system of performance metrics
  • Assisted emergency communications centers with evaluation and purchasing of technology upgrades
  • Helped clients address standards developed by APCO, NENA, IAED & NFPA and other performance mea

In today’s one-size-fits-all world, our team helps you build solutions that match the needs of your community and organization. Together, we’ll evaluate the options and help you make decisions about communications and technology that are cost-effective, reliable and sustainable.

Resources

The Cornerstone Series:

The State of Data Use in EMS

It’s clear there is increasing interest among EMS leaders in using data to improve our ability to monitor our systems—often in real time—and to translate that data into information that can improve systems and ultimately patient care.

Resource Article

Breaking through the Shadows

EMS leaders have long known that what we do is a high-stress occupation. However, the drastically increasing number of suicides within our workforce compels leaders to shine a bright light into the dark corners of our caregivers’ souls and directly upon our profession’s apathy.

Articles

Fitch Insights & Perspective

Reports

2907, 2020
2020 EMS Trend Report

This will be a defining year for EMS, shaped by new care delivery options, legislative mandates and the public spotlight. [...]