Answers to calls at Vicksburg Warren 911 may sound a little different starting Monday.

The call center is implementing a new computer call system and now telecommunicaters will answer the phone asking, “Vicksburg Warren 911- police, fire or medical?” instead of starting with asking the location of their emergency.

“As soon as they answer that question, we will continue with protocol, ‘what is the address of your emergency?’ is the second question, ‘what’s the phone number you are calling from?’ and ‘exactly what’s happening?’” said Melissa Trcka, training coordinator and quality assurance officer at Vicksburg Warren 911.

She said the agency asks for the caller’s phone number so they can call back in case the call gets disconnected. Help is dispatched immediately, but the telecommunicators continue to ask questions in some cases to aid the caller and walk them through steps if someone is in need of urgent attention.

The telecommunicators use to ask for the callers’ location and verify the phone number first, then based on the emergency they would flip to the correct manual. By starting with asking if the emergency requires police, fire or medical will now allow the telecommunicators to access the proper set of questions first.

“The only thing that’s changing is the way we answer the phones so that we can launch the proper set of questions,” Trcka said.

Trcka believes the new system will be more efficient. Previously telecommunicators had to flip through a manual with the protocol script. Now the script will be on the computer screen to assist them so they don’t have to adjust their eyes from the screen to the book.

“It’s easy to lose your place,” Trcka said. “Now it’s all on the computer, and it’s just a mouse click and everything is right in front of you.”

Trcka said the agency has had the ProQA program for a while now, but it would not work with their previous computer-aided dispatch program. Now the agency has updated to Applications Data System Inc. out of Southaven who has been working for a year to incorporate ProQA with ADSi.

“We are the first agency in the country to run this with the specific CAD that we have,” Trcka said. “So it’s taken some time to get everything programed in, to get everything working correctly and that is now happening.”

She said the reason other agencies have not done this before is because there is no requirement to use a protocol script. Vicksburg Warren 911 director Chuck Tate said many agencies come up with their own protocol instead of using a nationally or internationally based system.

“We however are using the international systems and we’re making sure our people are going through and getting the advanced training, especially in medical dispatching,” Tate said.

He said used here offers pre-arrival instructions like CPR and the proposal said they have delivered a baby over the phone before responders got on scene. Vicksburg Warren 911 also uses the protocol because it provides them liability coverage since the protocol agency will back them up in court in case of a problem. Tate said it is a lot of work using the protocols because they call for consistent training and education in monthly 2-hour long lessons and tests on a single protocol.

Local television station TV23 will start running public service announcements on the change in protocol and the dos and don’ts of 911 calls at the end of the week. Tate’s advice is for 911 callers to try to answers the telecommunicators’ questions as clearly as possible to avoid confusion and to get help sent sooner. He said store hours, parade routes and cats in trees are not emergency calls and should be directed to information.