Am I at NASA?

At the front of the room, there’s a giant screen in place of a wall. This screen is divided into 16 frames, each with live video. Facing this screen are rows of desks and computers, each staffed by an operator, chatting away on a headset. The room is humming with the buzz of individual conversations.

Am I at NASA?

Nope, this is the the ECU911 Center of Cuenca. The room is filled with dispatchers from all parts of the city’s emergency personnel – policemen, firefighters, paramedics. The police are here monitoring live feed of the streets (from the 319 cameras installed throughout the city!), making sure that the city is safe. There are city doctors here to answer calls and offer direct medical advice to the EMTs.

After jumping through a lot of hoops, we got the necessary clearances and on our fifth time at ECU 911, we were finally allowed to go in. We were really excited to finally be able to begin data collection at ECU 911, the last leg of the project.

Listening to the radio is difficult. Imagine a staticy voice…talking in radio lingo…in a foreign language. But, luckily they take notes on all parts of the calls before entering it into the computer. We then go through their call with our checklists, making note of what is reported to the hospital from the ambulances and what is not.

Everyone there is incredibly friendly, and more than willing to answer our numerous questions. All of the agencies are right next to each other: Cruz Roja, IESS, MSP, Bomberos. When there were no calls coming in, we got a chance to chat to the dispatchers and get to know more about their organizations. They fielded questions on everything: training protocols, entry into the agency, dispatch regulations, etc.



I'm not allowed to bring my phone in (security and all that), but I was able to snag this photo off of google. (Thanks http://www.nuestraseguridad.gob.ec!)