Imagine starting work like any other day and suddenly suffering severe chest pains.  You dial 911 and ask for an ambulance but are not able to complete the conversation with the 911 call taker.  In this case, the 911 dispatcher must rely on the Automatic Location Identification (ALI) on her screen to send a rescue unit to your aid.

But what if the location information was inaccurate or didn’t even exist?

Unfortunately for Kaafee Billah, 39-year-old sales representative for MedImmune Inc. inGaithersburg Maryland, the ALI data was never populated in the database, and as a consequence the rescue team never located him.  The rescue team responded to the MedImmune Inc. building next door, which is the main business address of the PBX. 

A police spokesman said that emergency calls from corporate phone systems are sometimes traced to the wrong location because phone lines in multiple buildings are traced to a single address.  The rescue unit searched the building next door to Mr. Billah for 10 minutes before concluding that the phone call was unfounded.   10 hours after Kaafee called 911 for help, a janitor dialed 911 to report the discovery of his body.   

This issue could have been easily resolved before this tragedy occurred.  As stated by the police officer on site, “The error is in the technology of the company phone system”. If MedImmune Inc. had installed a system like RedSky’s E911 Manager, specific location information for 911 callers in each building and even more specifically for each area of a building would’ve helped emergency responders quickly locate the caller, which may have made the difference between life and death.  E911 Manager integrates with the communications system to automatically capture, manage and deliver location information for 911 calling.

“This is a problem that 911 dispatchers have struggled with for several years,” said Bill Cade, director of 911 services and communications center operations at the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International.  “Several companies have been reluctant to invest in software that allows emergency responders to trace phone calls in large corporate settings to specific locations due to the cost,” stated Cade.

Installing E911 on your communications system is really an investment in workplace safety.  In a tragic situation such as this, it is impossible to compare the cost of investing in emergency preparedness against a loss of life.