Emergency Preparedness

Should land lines (home phones) cease to exist????

I am sure many of you see the benefit of getting rid of your home phones for several reasons. The biggest I hear is that it is common sense to lose the land line when most, if not all, of us have cells phones. It is cheaper, it reduces bills, and I wholeheartedly agree. However, many of you do not know a small but major detail that is a downfall with not having a land line available in your home. I work in Emergency Medical Services and as I work in this field I tend to have more access to knowledge that many are not aware of. I take it as my duty to you to inform you on such matters.

With that being said, in EMS we can have our fair share of phone disconnections between the 911 operater and the caller. They are usually from the caller's phone error or hysteria due to the medical emergency. When the latter happens the caller does not realize or even care that they have hung up because they are experiencing a medical/traumatic emergency. At this point, the dispatchers' job is not only try to call the caller back but also pinpoint the callers location through tracking (something akin to a GPS system). The not so good part if you are using your cell phone is that dispatch can only track you within the radius your cell phone is currently in, not the exact location (i.e. a 10 or 20 mile radius). Meaning, fire, EMS, and police are told the area but not the specific address. Because of this time is wasted. Public saftey officials will either knock on residental doors or go into random businesses hoping to find the caller and their medical/traumatic emergency. If not, they will go back in service because they have no further lead on the caller's whereabouts.

Now, in the event that a caller did use a land line phone the dispatcher will not only know the direct address but can immediately send public safety personnel to the correct address and potentially save a life. In healthcare, we have a saying that "time is muscle", which means every minute counts in regards to saving a life.


Would you want to be caught in this dilemma? I sure wouldn't...so I am making it a priority to have a land line in my home for emergency purposes. You might want to consider the same.