Fulton 911 Center Falsely Claimed Accreditation

Publicbroadcasting.net / Odette Yousef ATLANTA, GA (2008-08-14)

Contrary to claims made on its website and by its former director, Fulton County's 911 Center is not accredited. The center has come under scrutiny after a 911 operator mishandled a call earlier this month, resulting in the death of a woman in Johns Creek.WABE's Odette Yousef reports.

Emergency response experts in the community say they've long known that County officials were falsely claiming accreditation. As recently as last week, the 911 center's webpage touted that it was, quote, Nationally Accredited 1st in Georgia, 28th in the world! But Fulton County's Emergency Communications Center hasn't been accredited since 2002.Carlynn Page is with the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch, which accredits roughly eighty 911 Centers in the world. She said accreditation is voluntary, but it ensures quality. If you call 911 where they're using a standardized protocol, you're going to get the same consistent, high level of care. Whereas if you call some agency that's not doing quality assurance or not using protocol correctly, it's just kind of hit and miss.

You don't know if you're going to get that same standard of care.The idea is to ensure that call-takers properly identify the nature of a medical emergency, dispatch the right resources in response, and give sound medical advice to callers.Accredited agencies have to pay a fee of $2 to 3 thousand dollars.Page does not know why Fulton County decided not to renew its accreditation, but said many agencies fail to renew:PAGE: It's usually due to a change in personnel, or someone that doesn't value that process as much.But one emergency dispatch expert in Atlanta said, if the county didn't value accreditation, why did it continue propagating the notion that the center was accredited long after it wasn't? Fulton County failed to respond to WABE's questions by airtime.