Bowling Green celebrates National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – When you call 911, the first voice you hear is the dispatcher, ready to talk you through giving birth, performing CPR or calming you after a violent crime.

The second week of April is National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week—it’s a week to honor 911 dispatchers and all that they do to keep communities around the country safe.

At The Medical Center Emergency Medical Services in Bowling Green, dispatchers often get around 160 calls a day.

They are the first people to hear the voice of someone in medical distress a person calling on behalf of the distressed, and their job is to get them the necessary help quickly.

Some of the dispatchers at The Medical Center EMS have been there for more than 30 years.

“They get to the point where they can listen to the tone of a person’s voice. Everybody assumes there’ll be a lot of screaming, everybody screams but people scream differently. They do really good at instantly knowing that this call is going to be different than others,” said Jim Williams, field operations manager at The Medical Center EMS.

The Medical Center EMS is looking for people who want to work as dispatchers. Training is provided for some of the more technical work. The main qualification is wanting to help others.