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Springfield leaders discuss 911 policies
NEW SPRINGFIELD
Springfield Township will continue to respond to 911 ambulance calls that are routed through Beaver Township dispatchers, the township fire chief said.
Springfield Township Fire Chief Matt Gebhardt said at Wednesday night’s trustees meeting he will let the village of New Middletown know the township’s ambulance is coming, but Springfield’s EMS service will not ignore a call which comes first to it because it could result in a death.
Gebhardt was responding to statements made by New Middletown Village Council members Monday criticizing the township for responding to 911 ambulance calls in the village instead of notifying the village, which has a first-responder ambulance service that is backed up by Clemente Ambulance, a private service.
Council heard a complaint from village resident Daniel Patoray who questioned why Springfield Township ambulance and police responded to a medical emergency Sept. 22 at his home, which is only a few doors away from New Middletown’s municipal building.
Village officials told him that since the call for help was made on a cell phone, it was routed to dispatchers for Springfield Township and that New Middletown was never notified of the call although they have requested this several times.
Gebhardt explained that he will not refer the 911 calls to the village because of a recent incident when there was confusion about the location of a 911 call.
Although the call came up as Unity Road, it was actually on Woodland Avenue. The dispatcher transferred the call to New Middletown although Gebhardt said Springfield Township’s ambulance had just come in from a call and could have responded immediately. But instead, he said it was “a lengthy amount of time” before Clemente responded. Gebhardt said no first responders came from New Middletown.
He said the person died in that case, and he doesn’t know if the outcome would have been different if the township ambulance had been called.
Springfield has no control over the fact that the 911 calls made from inside the village are routed to the township’s dispatchers in Beaver Township. But he said he will not turn away any call for help and refer it to the village, although he will notify New Middletown police that the township ambulance is coming into the village.
Police Chief Matthew Mohn said, however, that in the future he will not send a township police car to the scene if the call is in the village.
He said it is department policy to send a cruiser ahead of the ambulance to “mark” the address so the ambulance knows where to go as well as to deal with any problems at the scene. He said in Patoray’s case, an officer was sent ahead of the ambulance to do this but said that since New Middletown objected, he will not do this in the future.