| County 911 gets top accreditation | | Posted: Friday, November 2, 2012 12:00 pm
| Weakley County 911 last month completed PowerPhone’s quality assurance program to successfully achieve Total Response Accreditation. This important designation serves as a mark of excellence in the emergency communications industry.
Weakley County undertook a dynamic process to identify best practices and promote high quality performance measures. Through this process they have validated their commitment to quality and accountability in emergency call handling.
Following adoption of and training in PowerPhone’s Total Response police, fire and emergency medical dispatch protocols, Weakley County committed to a formal accreditation process as part of their ongoing adherence to providing the highest standard of care in the industry.
“We are incredibly proud to be the first 911 center in America to be accredited in all three disciplines with PowerPhone’s Computer Aided Call Handling,” said Jamison Peevyhouse, Emergency 911 director for Weakley County.
“Over a year of hard work, dedication and quality assurance, our agency came together with a commitment to provide the most superior service to the citizens of Weakley County.”
The communications center began with a self-evaluation of its call handling and dispatch function to help establish benchmarks against which future operations could be compared.
With the help of Cory Friend, PowerPhone’s Professional Services Director and public safety veteran, Weakley County was able to define optimal quality assurance standards and an action plan to adhere to these standards.
During this process, Weakley County has had a percentage of the calls answered randomly reviewed for protocol compliance. The department has undertaken rigorous documentation of its goals, policies and procedures, and stakeholder involvement.
Dispatchers and supervisors have participated in intense quality assurance training in order to obtain tools and techniques to enhance their strengths, remedy shortcomings and learn to confront future challenges.
“If you are talented, passionate, and driven, it’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when,” Friend said. “There was never a doubt that Weakley County would become accredited. They are an agency that is always striving to be better, always striving to be ahead of the game.
“Now that they have this backing of quality assurance training and best practices, their level of service provided to callers and responders will be even further enhanced.”
Weakley County 911 was recognized for their accomplishments at the 27th Annual TN Emergency Number Association Conference. The conference was held Sept. 23. Published in The WCP 11.1.12 | | | | |
