When you dial the emergency number 101 in Israel for medical help, the call is answered in four seconds on average. And it’s not answered by a 911 operator, but rather by a Magen David Adom EMT or paramedic – a trained medical professional – who is not reading from a script, rather giving instantaneous medical instructions based on years of experience and training. If the regional dispatch center happens to be too busy to answer in seconds, the call is automatically kicked to a different regional dispatch center, where dispatchers can handle the call just as readily as the local region.
If you have ever called 911 in the US you frequently would be put on hold before an actual human picks up. If it’s a medical emergency, you are transferred to a dispatcher, a process that can take minutes more before an ambulance is sent your way. That’s not what happens here. The speed at which ambulances and first responders are dispatched in Israel and the innovative technology that has been able to be put in place, because MDA owns and programs the dispatch system itself, have saved thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – of lives.
