Tavares, FL (Lake County) - Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013
by Vance Jochim
An emergency vehicle in Volusia County took 15 minutes to reach a guy who died before they reached him.
They were dispatched by a central Sheriff run dispatching department. A trainee dispatcher somehow gave the wrong instructions to the Ambulance drivers.
Apparently the problem was inability of the caller to 911 to explain what address he was at. The trainee then sent the ambulance to an address 3-miles away.
This article is hitting Facebook distributions because the guy that died was a friend of a well known watchdog blogger in Volusia County.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/article/20131009/NEWS/131009459/1040?p=1&tc=pg
This should be sent to the Lake County emergency dispatch operations managers (in cities as well).
I have had a related problem with Fire dispatch in Lake County because I called to report a fire and I am on the border of Lake County and Tavares, and had to go through confirming exact addresses and being re-routed from one dispatch to another. It was only an electrical junction box fire, but the issue was quite confusing and service delayed while the dispatchers worked out who was responsible so they could sent the correct fire department.
Then you wonder why the Lake County Board and the Lake County Fire Dept. balks at consolidating with Tavares, Mt. Dora and Eustis fire departments (which just dropped out) for a consolidated fire service area. (This came up at this week’s Tavares City Council meeting).
