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University Hospital Emergency Medical Services

Regional Emergency Medical Communications System

 

 

The communication center for University Hospital Emergency Medical Services, acronymed REMCS for the Regional Emergency Medical Communications System of Metropolitan New Jersey, is the telecommunications backbone of the UH-EMS system. REMCS serves as the public safety dispatch point and 9-1-1 medical answering center for the City of Newark, New Jersey.

REMCS call takers are responsible for screening and prioritizing all 9-1-1 emergency medical calls originating within the City of Newark, including Newark Liberty International Airport and the New Jersey Marine Terminals. Citywide dispatchers are then responsible for assigning these calls for service to appropriate field units.

Medical requests are prioritized utilizing internationally recognized Medical Priority Dispatch ProQA software, which utilizes a standard system of questions to determine the nature and severity of the request. This software also aids dispatchers with providing pre-arrival and post-dispatch medical instructions to callers on how to assist victims prior to the arrival of public safety resources.

REMCS is responsible for taking outside agency ALS requests from the cities of Orange and East Orange which are primary coverage areas for the UH-EMS ALS Division and for requests for mutual aid into surrounding municipalities.

Supplementing medical dispatch operations, REMCS began providing fire dispatch services in 2006. A dedicated fire service component provides all fire and rescue dispatch services to the neighboring cities of Irvington, Maplewood, and Orange. In 2014, REMCS also began providing dispatch services for EMS within the Village of South Orange. In 2021, REMCS again expanded dispatch service to the Village of South Orange Fire Department

New Jersey State Police JEMSTAR (Shock Trauma Air Rescue) Communications are also based out of REMCS. This includes all call screening, dispatch, and flight following for New Jersey's medevac helicopters. A dedicated air-medical telecommunicator is on duty at all times to receive requests for emergency on-scene responses and for critical care missions. Please see the JEMSTAR section of our website for further information.

 

Core dispatch services performed by REMCS:

The REMCS/UH-EMS communications system is comprised of multiple conventional VHF/UHF channels along with digital and analog trunked systems throughout the coverage area. In addition to the radio system, REMCS uses alpha-numeric alerting and a vehicle-mounted MDT system to provide timely transfer of information to field users. In an effort to improve unit safety and reduce response times, since 1998 all vehicles in the UH-EMS fleet have been equipped with a GPS-based AVL (automatic vehicle location) system that is monitored by REMCS. Information obtained from this system is displayed graphically on a map of the service area to aid dispatchers in selecting the closest appropriate units for assignments.

REMCS Radio Channels

UHEMS Channel 1 (KVV773 - Newark Metro JEMS1, VHF Repeater)
UHEMS Channel 5 (WPRI404 - Essex County JEMS1, VHF Simplex)
UHEMS Channel 6 (KNFL662 - Essex County OEM, VHF Repeater)

New Jersey Interoperability Communications System (NJICS)
REMCS 1
REMCS 2
REMCS 3
Maplewood Fire Department Channels 1 & 2
South Orange Fire Department Channels 1 & 2

New Jersey State Police Trunked Radio System
JEMSTAR Flight Operations
NJSP Aviation/Air Operations
New Jersey MICU Statewide Network
New Jersey Trauma Network
New Jersey Hospital Emergency Radio Network (HERN)
New Jersey TF-1 USAR Talkgroups
New Jersey EMS Task Force Talkgroups

REMCS and UH-EMS field units also have access to the following interagency radio systems:
MED Channels 1-8 (UHF Field Telemetry)
REMCS MED 9-10 (UHF Special Operations)
SPEN-1 (Statewide Police Interagency)
SPEN-4 (Statewide Fire/EMS Interagency)
JEMS-3 (Statewide disaster operations)
Newark Police Department Dispatch
Newark Fire Department Dispatch
Essex County Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
VCALL, VTAC-1/2/3/4 (Homeland Security Interoperations - VHF)
UCALL, UTAC-1/2/3/4 (Homeland Security Interoperations - UHF)
7CALL, 7TAC-1/2/3/4 (Homeland Security Interoperations - 700 MHz)
8CALL, 8TAC-1/2/3/4 (Homeland Security Interoperations - 800 MHz)

REMCS CAD/AVL System

In 2006 REMCS installed a new state of the art Zoll computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system which incorporates all of the dispatch software packages into one user interface. The new CAD incorporates the internationally recognized Medical Priority Dispatch (MPD) software for screening and prioritizing medical requests that has been successfully used at UH-EMS for over 10 years.

This software is also integrated with the inMotion GPS-based AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location) system that was installed in all UH-EMS operated vehicles. The AVL software automatically polls vehicle GPS location. This information is utilized to update unit status within CAD and is displayed graphically of a map of the UH-EMS service area. Dispatchers are able to utilize real-time location data and computer recommendations to assign the closest available system resources to any given assignment. This results in an increase in unit safety and reduction in response time.

9-1-1 Public Safety Dispatch Point

REMCS serves as the medical public safety dispatch point for all 911 requests originating within the City of Newark, Township of Maplewood, City of Orange Township and the Village of South Orange. Through the stateside enhanced 9-1-1 (E911) system call-takers are provided with the telephone number and address of the caller (ANI/ALI) to help expedite the call screening process. All 911 calls and emergency medical requests originating from traditional 7-digit phone numbers are automatically routed to the Public Safety Answer Point (PSAP) operated by the local police departments. When police call-takers identify the emergency as medical in nature or that medical assistance may be needed such as with assaults and motor vehicle accidents, the call is routed to REMCS for medical screening.

REMCS maintains a small component of specialists that comprise the Technical Services Division. These personnel, which may be permanently or temporarily assigned to assist TSD, are responsible for maintaining and supporting the technological aspects of UH-EMS and REMCS. This includes the EMS Radio Systems, the EMS computer network and servers,EMS website, CAD System, SOG/Technology Support Unit, AVL, and alpha-numeric paging systems.