Hall Ambulance Service, Inc. has successfully completed the intensive 20-step process to reaccredit as an Accredited Center of Excellence (ACE). Its communication center is the 154th emergency dispatch center in the world to attain the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch^® (IAED^™) status as an ACE for its use of the Medical Priority Dispatch System™ (MPDS^®).  This distinction places Hall Ambulance among the very highest-performing emergency dispatch agencies in the world.

ACE inspires agencies to perform superior, up-to-date public care and to employ efficient use of resources when handling all emergency call situations. An accreditation lasts three years. In order to achieve reaccreditation, agencies must meet or exceed the same standards required in the initial accreditation, which requires participation from everyone in the department. Because ACE agencies abide by these standards and have fulfilled these requirements, callers can have peace of mind knowing their needs will always be appropriately addressed and that they will receive the help they need.

This is Hall Ambulance’s third accreditation, and it is one of 17 Medical ACE agencies in the state of California. It processes 100 percent of all ambulance requests for Hall Ambulance, Liberty Ambulance, and Delano Ambulance in Kern County. In 2017, the Communications Division answered a company record 115,637 requests for medical help.

Communications Division Assistant Manager Carol Dean is excited about the accomplishment.  “The feeling I got when I found out that Hall Ambulance Service’s Communications Division had successfully become a Re-Accredited Center of Excellence made me very proud and honored,” she said.

Hall Ambulance Founder and President Harvey L. Hall can’t say enough about the dedication and efforts each staff member has shown in helping reach this milestone. He said the ACE status means the service is well equipped to respond to residents’ needs and send the right help in each situation.

“Retaining our Center of Excellence Accreditation by the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch demonstrates that Hall Ambulance’s Communications Division has surpassed the industry’s highest standards and is prepared to serve Kern County,” he said. “Each of our dispatchers brings forth every day their best work. They are focused and professional.”

Just as it does for the initial accreditation, the Academy’s Board of Accreditation reviews the center’s application and documentation of the Twenty Points. “There’s a tremendous amount of work that goes into reaccrediting as an ACE,” said IAED Chair of Accreditation Christof Constantin Chwojka. “We’re certainly proud of Hall Ambulance and its dedication to this process.”

Hall said being an ACE agency isn’t only significant for him and his company’s emergency dispatchers (EMDs), but he said it should mean something special to everyone in the community as well.

“Providing ambulance dispatch for Kern County’s population of 882,176 people is quite significant,” he said. “Over Hall Ambulance Service’s 47-year-history, we have built a trust with the communities we serve that when life’s unexpected moments occur, our EMDs will ensure the closest available ambulance is on its way!”

There are currently more than 180 centers throughout the world that have the Medical ACE distinction among the 3,500 centers worldwide using the fire, police, medical, and nurse triage protocols for safe and efficient response to the wide variety of emergency situations.