99% Answer Rate

A Times-News newspaper article notes that the Mineral County (Md.) 911 center has a 99% success rate in meeting its emergency phone answer time goal, but that the goal is answering within one minute. Center director Marsha Sargent says in the story that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) requires only that 95% of emergency calls be answered within one minute. She added that the center has two vacancies among 12 full-time and one part-time position. There is no nationally-recognized standard for answering 911 calls, but a more common performance standard is 95% within 10 seconds. Read the full story here.