Randolph Police Department Achieves Total Response Accreditation

MADISON, Conn. - Feb. 3, 2014 - PRLog -- The Randolph Police Department in collaboration with the Randolph Fire Department, has successfully implemented the Total Response Call Handling System and has achieved accreditation.

This important designation serves as a mark of excellence in the public safety industry. The staff at Randolph undertook a dynamic process to standardize service, define quality, and measure performance. Through this process, the commitment to providing quality service and agency accountability in emergency call handling has been validated.

Following adoption of standardized protocols and training in PowerPhone’s Total Response Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) system, the personnel at Randolph committed to a formal accreditation process as part of their ongoing adherence to providing the highest standard of care in the industry.

“As required by the state mandate to participate in an Emergency Medical Dispatch Program, the Randolph Police Department has made great strides to excel and go beyond the mandate.  We have committed to the EMD program department wide and have included the Randolph Fire Department in the process. Our officers, who also work as dispatchers, have been professional and dedicated to the Total Response System,” said Chief of Randolph Police, William Pace.

The department began with a self-evaluation of their call handling and dispatch function to help establish benchmarks against which future operations could be compared. With the help of the staff at PowerPhone, the Randolph Police Department was able to define the standards they wanted to meet and develop an action plan to achieve these standards.

In accordance with the accreditation guidelines, a percentage of the emergency calls were randomly selected and retrospectively reviewed for compliance and to measure effectiveness. The purpose of this practice is to promote continuous improvement through the identification of performance strengths and areas requiring additional adjustment.

“Our goal is to triage all medical calls using the Total Response Call Handling System. With the training in Emergency Medical Dispatch, we can now effectively assess a situation. Additionally, we offer pre-arrival instructions to comfort and ease the patients and family members that call for assistance.  The program is aimed at providing the best quality, professional, and committed service to the community.  Through education, training, and continuous quality assurance, the Randolph Police Department’s call management is on track to becoming the standard for best practices in the emergency services community,” said Sgt. Melissa McCormick.

Further McCormick said, “As the manager of our EMD program, I have been involved from the very inception of the program.  From writing the grants, to writing the policy and procedures, to ensuring continuous quality assurance, it’s been a great experience following the growth of the program. Our officers are exceeding the expectations.  I’m very proud of the men and women of the Randolph Police Department.  My thanks also go out to the men and women of the Randolph Fire Department for the willing cooperation.”

“The Randolph Police Department is an agency that is committed to providing quality service to the citizens of their community. Their effort and passion to exceed the expectations of the State is exemplary. We are proud of their accomplishments,” said Heather Pierce, PowerPhone Standards Coordinator. “I look forward to working with the staff at Randolph to continually define the standard of care and support their efforts for continual improvement,” said Pierce.

About PowerPhone:
PowerPhone is a global leader in emergency communications training and technology. Since its inception in 1984, PowerPhone has trained more than 200,000 public safety professionals. As the first organization to train 911 operators in police, fire and emergency medical dispatch, PowerPhone has helped define standards for emergency call handling internationally. Built on the premise of ‘One Number, One Protocol, PowerPhone are the inventors of Total Response®, a comprehensive system of training, protocols and quality assurance tools to better empower 911 professionals to make objective, outcome-driven decisions on any emergency call.

For more information, visit www.powerphone.com or contact us at news@powerphone.com.