After nearing ‘max capacity,’ Life EMS expands center
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Life EMS is celebrating its newly renovated and expanded control center along with the contributions of dispatchers as part of National Telecommunicators Week.
The ambulance company now works with a 10-county service area.
“We have just recently improved and expanded to allow for additional growth — additional emergency medical dispatch positions, as we call it, with the computer infrastructure,” said Mark Meijer, the president of the company.
Meijer says the center plays a crucial role in making sure people get the emergency care they need.
“If somebody calls 911 for medical help in a Life EMS response area — whether it’s in the city of Grand Rapids or in the county — the 911 dispatcher will immediately connect that caller with our medical dispatchers here at Life EMS,” Meijer said. “The minute that they find out that that 911 request is for medical help.”
Dispatchers then determine the severity of the call and send an ambulance to the location.
The center uses artificial intelligence that helps Life EMS station its vehicles by predicting which places will have the greatest need.
“We have software working in the background that basically is AI, if you will — artificial intelligence that uses data up until the last 20 minutes ago to determine as best we can where the next emergency request is going to happen,” Meijer said.
The center handles more than 450,000 calls a year and more than 1,250 calls a day.
Designers worked to improve the lighting and make the space more comfortable for employees.
“We’ve tried to soften things as best we can,” Meijer said. “We have artwork on the walls.”
The project also expanded the break room to give dispatchers a more inviting place to take a break from the calls.
On Tuesday, Meijer presented an award to Nick Heinrich, who helped save a child who was choking, with a Heartsaver Award as part of National Telecommunicators Week.
The company’s president says he is grateful for the lifesaving work of the employees and hopes the new space will better meet their needs and the community’s needs as the company grows.
“We were getting to the max capacity of our previous center and so we had to work out something efficiency-wise that our people could better communicate amongst themselves,” Meijer said. “And so clearly we had to do some significant upgrades in our mind to stay at the level of quality that we were at.”
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