When you call 911, you are routed to the Monroe County 911 Center, otherwise known as the Emergency Communications Department. The ECD is the point of central reception and response to 911 dialed calls, dispatch of emergency equipment, and relay or transfer of service calls to the appropriate public service agencies. Over one million dispatches are made to police, fire and emergency services each year. The trained professionals at ECD will ask you questions based on what you have already told them. 

Location is the most important! They cannot and do not depend on technology alone to determine where you are. They NEED you to tell them the address of the emergency with the City or Town and streets that intersect nearby. If you are on an expressway, they may ask for the route number, mile marker, nearest exit, a landmark you can see and the direction of travel. 

When calling for an ambulance The 9-1-1 Center uses Emergency Medical Dispatch protocols and procedures to screen and dispatch calls for medical emergencies. This internationally accepted system provides for the most advanced technologies to allow you to receive appropriate help and proper care. Questions are asked in a prescribed order, and based on your answers, they determine the level of response necessary. High priority calls will receive an ambulance with ALS (Advanced Life Support) and in some cases a fire department EMS response. Lower priority calls may very well be handled by a BLS (Basic Life Support) Ambulance and crew. 

If medical attention is needed and the call is within the CHS coverage area, the call data is immediately routed from ECD to a dispatcher at CHS via a secure computer. The CHS dispatcher in turn sends out the appropriate ambulance. 

This information is vitally important to us in getting help there as soon as we can.

Please help us, help you!

CHS Healthcare has dispatchers in-house 24/7 at our Headquarters. However, if they are busy dispatching an emergency call, they may not be able to answer the phone right away. Given this, it is critical that if you wish for CHS Healthcare to respond to assist you, ALWAYS DIAL 911. If you do call our business line for a medical concern, we will ask you to hang up and call 911 instead. Please do not send a message via our website or to Facebook for emergency assistance.