The Alternative Press

SUMMIT, NJ - Atlantic Ambulance Corp. and MONOC today announced an agreement to transition all of Atlantic Ambulance’s CenCom emergency dispatch services to MONOC’s 911 dispatch center in Wall Township.

The seven-year agreement will transfer emergency dispatching responsibilities from CenCom, a regional 911 dispatch center operated by Atlantic Ambulance Corp. at Overlook Medical Center, to MONOC, the Monmouth Ocean Hospital Service Corporation, a non-profit company comprised of 15 acute care hospitals throughout New Jersey. Through the agreement, MONOC’s medevac helicopter will operate cooperatively with Atlantic Ambulance’s medevac fleet, which will be dispatched for emergency flights by MONOC. The transition will take effect June 1, 2012.

CenCom, which was founded in 1982, handled 911, fire, paramedic and air dispatch for 18 paramedic units in 22 towns in Union, Essex and Morris Counties, as well as all of Atlantic Ambulance’s air and ground emergency units.

“Combining the services handled previously by CenCom with those currently handled by MONOC, will make response to medical emergencies far more efficient,” said Richard Donovan, director of Atlantic Ambulance Corp. “This will be a huge step towards meeting the changing needs of dispatching services in New Jersey, and ultimately better serving the public.”

“Both of our organizations have made great efforts to ensure that the transition of CenCom’s services will be seamless, with no change in the level of services or cost to client agencies,” said Jeff Behm, Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, MONOC Mobile Health Services.

“As part of our expanding strategic alliance with Atlantic Ambulance Corp., MONOC is also seriously investigating participation in a statewide MedEvac network Atlantic is currently forming,” said Vincent D. Robbins, President and Chief Executive Officer of MONOC.

Representatives of Atlantic Ambulance and MONOC are in the process of notifying agencies that will be affected by the transition such as local EMS squads.

In addition to their current dispatch responsibilities, MONOC will now dispatch Atlantic Ambulance’s paramedic and 911 basic life support (BLS) units, several northern municipality BLS units, and will perform emergency medical dispatch 911 call screening for several other municipalities.

As part of the agreement, MONOC will also dispatch Atlantic Ambulance’s fleet of air medevac helicopters, known as Atlantic Air One, Two and Three. MONOC’s own medevac helicopter, MONOC One, will operate cooperatively with Atlantic Ambulance’s medevac fleet, augmenting both services and improving response times to emergencies.

Atlantic Ambulance will continue internal, non-emergency dispatch operations, such as inter-facility transport, as well as operating the Patient Transfer Center and proprietary ambulance dispatch, which are 24 hour-a-day, 365 day-a-year operations.