Austin County EMS is dispatched on a 24 hour basis by the Austin County Sheriff’s Department Dispatch center on the following frequencies. Receive – 154.325 and Dispatch 156.075. Austin County EMS shares this frequency with the following Volunteer Fire Departments. Wallis F.D., Sealy F.D., Cat Spring F.D., San Felipe/Frydek F.D., Industry F.D., and the New Ulm F.D.

The Colorado County Sheriff’s Department is the largest dispatch center in Colorado County. The department dispatches law enforcement for the county and the three cities of Columbus, Eagle Lake, and Weimar on the S.O. primary frequency of 155.745. They also dispatch eight of the nine fire departments on the county fire frequency of 153.830. The Sheridan ambulance is dispatched by the Sheriff department on the county fire frequency. The county ambulances based in Columbus, Eagle Lake, and Weimar are dispatched by their respective hospitals on 155.160. The Garwood Volunteer Fire Department dispatches it’s ambulance and fire department on 154.400.

All ambulances have the capability of using the S.O. primary for reporting status to the Sheriff Dispatch. Each ambulance has 155.160 for communications with the hospitals in Columbus, Eagle Lake and Weimar.

Primary communications for Fort Bend County EMS are provided through the use of the County’s 800 MHz trunked radio system. We utilize 5 different talk groups for operations and 3 for medical control. The station alert systems are operated via a VHF frequency of 155.265. This communications center provides dispatching for 11 area fire departments several different frequencies, VHF Hi and Low as well as 800 MHz.

The largest dispatch center in TSA-Q is the Houston Fire Department. The Houston Fire Department operates on 16 frequencies in the 460 MHz range. Eight of these frequencies are designated for on-line medical control. The other 8 are divided as follows: Fire 1: Station Alert, Fire 2: Fire Dispatch, Fire 3: Fire tactical, Fire 4: Fire Tactical, Ambulance 5: Ambulance tactical, Ambulance 6: Ambulance dispatch (462.950 MHz) Ambulance 7: Ambulance communications, Ambulance 8:

Ambulance communications.

All frequencies are simulcast using multiple repeaters. The range of these frequencies covers all of the City of Houston extending into Brazos, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

Dispatching for the Harris County is also handled under contract by the Harris County Emergency Communications, Inc. There are a minimum of 2 dispatchers on duty at all times, with 3 or more on duty during peak hours.

Matagorda County Sheriff’s department is the main center for 911 in Matagorda County. Bay City EMS has 2 channels for EMS. Channel 1 is used primarily. Channel 2 is used when we have multiple unit responses. Bay City EMS crews are dispatched out either by alpha pagers or directly by radio. The radios are set up on a repeater system. Midfield, Sargent, and Matagorda Volunteer EMS services are dispatched out on their own frequencies by the Bay City Volunteer Fire Department. Midfield, Sargent, and Matagorda are dispatched by pagers.

Montgomery County Hospital District EMS operates the Fire and EMS dispatch system for Montgomery County, with the exception of The Woodlands Fire Department and Timberlakes Fire Department. However, these agencies share the CAD system and radio frequencies with the rest of the county. Dedicated phone lines between the centers enable uninterrupted communications between dispatchers.

An integrated CAD allows for simultaneous fire and EMS response. The various law enforcement agencies are also on the PD portion of the same CAD, allowing dispatchers to access and share information on joint responses.

All of EMS and the two largest fire departments, as well as all of law enforcement, operate on an 800 MHz trunked radio system. Units are toned on VHF and all dispatched information is simulcasts on VHF as a redundancy.

The remainder of the fire service and first responders exclusively use VHF. However, these VHF frequencies have been hard patched into the 800 system to allow cross communication until all departments are able to migrate to 800.

The dispatch center in Walker County is the Huntsville Police Department, which is staffed by two communications operators per shift. Walker County is currently constructing a 911 Communications Center, which will dispatch all emergency service agencies. The center is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2000. HWCEMS operates on a duplex system. The transmit frequency is 150.775 MHz and the receive frequency is 155.265 MHz.

The largest dispatch center in Waller County is the Waller County Sheriff’s Department. They dispatch for DPS, Hempstead PD, Waller PD, Prairie View PD, Hempstead Fire Department, Waller Fire Department, Tri-County Fire Department, Prairie View Fire Department, Monavillle Fire Department, Waller County Volunteer EMS, and Waller County Sheriff’s Department (Deputies and task forces). All units are on ONE frequency.

Range is limited and undependable in the northwest and southern areas of the county.

The dispatch center for the City of Wharton is located at the Wharton Police Department, which is staffed by one sometimes two communications operators per shift. City Police, EMS First Responders, and Fire Departments for East Wharton County are dispatched from the Emergency Communications Center. Our communications center utilizes 5 channels for radio communications and operate off VHF 150.

The sharing of a common frequency by Austin County EMS and the local Fire Departments is a definite problem in multiple agency response to one or more situations. Alternate frequencies and communications systems are being investigated along with definitive radio protocols for all agencies, which includes utilizing non repeated frequencies for on scene communications.

Colorado County only has two frequencies available for communications for Law Enforcement, Fire Service and EMS. During large incidents these become very busy.

No capability for county wide paging.

With the use of 800 trunking, the ambulance units are somewhat isolated from communications with other responding agencies that do not utilize the 800 trunking system.

The Houston Fire Department does not use a trunked system. The use of a trunked system would allow more efficient use of their allotted bandwidth.

Bay City EMS is set up on the 800 trunking system. Matagorda, Sargent, Palacios, and Midfield are set up on the VHF frequencies. The only communication we have between any o f the services is by the Sheriff’s Department’s primary radio frequency. If the Sheriff’s Department closes the channel except for emergency traffic only, then our only other source of communication is the mobile phones in the ambulances.

The biggest problem in the region is lack of common radio frequencies. This has caused some agencies to install up to three radios in their vehicles.

MCHD EMS maintains VHF radios in all response vehicles to allow for unit to unit traffic in mutual aid situations with surrounding counties. In addition, Cypress Creek EMS and MCHD have invested in a link between our 800 system and CCEMS’s UHF system. This allows all units ant the two communications centers to communicate effectively during automatic aid situations and disasters.

All agencies use the same frequency. In cases of major incidents, it is almost impossible to communicate. Waller County Volunteer EMS recently purchased 10 NEXTEL phones to enable our units to use "direct connect" features for communications when we cannot get a clear channel. We are also not allowed, by orders of the sheriff, to communicate directly. We must call the dispatcher, give the information we want to relay, and wait for the dispatcher to repeat it to the other unit.

No Waller County Sheriff’s dispatchers are EMD certified and no pre-arrival instructions are given. Nature of the call is given as a "10-50" or motor vehicle collision, or a medical call. The rationale for this is that EMS calls are all medical calls because they are not police calls.

All dispatch personnel are EMD trained and certified through Medical Priorities Consultants.

Very basic training for dispatch personnel. No EMD training.

Fort Bend County EMS requires all communications personnel to be certified at the EMT Level. They also require and provide training for EMD.

Houston Fire Department Dispatchers are trained internally by the Houston Fire Department, they also receive EMD training from Medical Priority Consultants.

Harris County Emergency Communications, Inc dispatchers are EMD certified.

Bay City EMS dispatchers are trained internally by Bay City EMS Dispatch staff. All other entities including Bay City F.D., Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office and Bay City P.D. provide training for their dispatchers.

All dispatch personnel are certified in EMD by MPD. In addition, each receive 6 weeks of qualification training.

Communication Center operators are currently EMD trained by Medical Priority Consultants. Plans are in place to begin training through the Texas Department of Health when courses become available.

40 hours of DPS TLETS school, 30-60 days of "hands on" training

All operators receive their 40 hrs. Basic TCLEOSE certification. Complete an in-house FTO program of 3 months. All operators are EMD certified. Current plans are to implement PowerPhones Computerized Software for POLICE, FIRE, and EMD Protocols to use on every call.

Austin County EMS averages an 8 minute response from the time of the initial contact on the phone to the arrival of an equipped unit on location. This average includes all of the incorporated cities (Sealy, Bellville, Wallis, San Feline, and Industry) and unincorporated areas of the county.

Response times very throughout the county depending on the location of the call. Average response time is currently 8 to 10 minutes.

Response times in vary widely from agency to agency and are dependent on day and time. Most agencies use a target of 4 minutes for first responder response and 8 minutes for ALS response.

Bay City EMS response times within the city average 7 minutes. Sargent, Matagorda, and Midfields response times are set at 10 minutes.

MCHD’s response times are:

Priority 1 Urban: 9:59

Priority 2 Urban: 11:59

Priority 1 Rural: 14:59

Priority 2 Rural: 16:59

All levels require 90% compliance.

Urban is defined as greater than 50 people per square mile.

Response times within the City of Huntsville are 4 to 6 minutes on average. All Walker County communities have first responders within their fire departments.

90% of calls had an ALS unit on scene in 6.4 minutes. The other 10% were in 7.8 minutes.

Wharton EMS averages a 6-minute response from the time of the initial tone out till the arrival of an equipped unit on location. This average includes the city of Wharton and all unincorporated areas of East Wharton County.

Austin County EMS maintains frequencies of several adjoining service areas in radio equipment for direct communications. Other shared frequencies that utilized consist of State Fire Mutual Aid, Hahern and Car to Car along with cellular and land lone communications with other dispatch centers or command posts. LifeFlight and Critical Air are usually contacted from the scene via State Fire Mutual Aid.

Multi-agency scenes are handled through the Sheriff’s Department.

Fort Bend County EMS communications center is able to communicate with all other agencies in the area on most other agencies direct frequency. Other agencies may communicate on shared frequencies such as HAHERN, State Fire MUTUAL AID. The communications center has the ability to patch frequencies together further enhancing multi-agency communications. Hermann Life Flight helicopters responding to scenes in Fort Bend County communicate with ground units on a selected I-tac channel.

The Houston Fire Department Dispatch center is able to communicate with most other agencies in the area by way of area wide frequencies and directly on the other agencies main frequencies. They can patch these communications to HFD frequencies allowing HFD responders to communicate with other agencies. Life Flight from Hermann Hospital communicates with the Houston Fire Department on Ambulance 7.

Matagorda County Sheriff’s Department is able to communicate with all EMS services within Matagorda County. All the EMS services are able to communicate with each other either by mobile phones or using the primary radio channel through the Sheriff’s Department. Bay City EMS is the only service within the county that has direct communications with the Bay City Police Department. Our communications with LifeFlight is on the HAHERN channel.

MCHD EMS maintains VHF radios in all response vehicles to allow for unit to unit traffic in mutual aid situations with surrounding counties. In addition, Cypress Creek EMS and MCHD have invested in a link between our 800 system and CCEMS’s UHF system. This allows all units ant the two communications centers to communicate effectively during automatic aid situations and disasters.

Communication is achieved directly on other agencies main frequencies or through the use of the inter-city frequency. Communication with LifeFlight is made via inter-city or the Houston Area Hospital Emergency Room Network (155.340).

Multi-Agency communications were addressed in "CONSTRAINTS."

The City of Wharton Communications Center is able to communicate with Police, Fire, and EMS agencies within Wharton County.