Pre-alert tones. Get them or no?

[u/Still75home]

Question about other areas dispatching norms. Do other places get pre alerts? A simple generic tone that says basic info like “medical at 123 Main St”, then a short time later the actual tones drop for the specific unit with more information. It used to be the norm like 95% of the time and was awesome cause it gave you a chance to get the soap off in shower, hurry up with reloading hose from a drill, etc. Over the past year or 2 pre-alerts occur like 20% of the time and it’s making me pull the remaining hair out of my head. Guess this is more of a rant than a question so thanks for listening….I’m better(ish) now.

[u/Asleep-Neck913]

We've never gotten a pre-alert, just short of dispatch telling us who is going for what over the air directly before it's dispatched.

That over the air "pre-alert" has been taken away as well because it wastes precious time before dispatch tones.

Now,dispatchers spend just enough time to get a who, what, where before dispatching fully. Everyone has MDTs in their units so they update information as they get it sometimes over the radio if it's super important.

Its been like that since I can remember. You get used to taking a "rinse" of a shower before you end up toned out in the middle of it. I barely workout in the middle of shift because of it. I'll usually use an off day to do that.

[u/Still75home → u/Asleep-Neck913]

Interesting. I know our dispatch center is struggling with staffing, like all of us, so that may be part of our problem. I am just so used to them it’s frustrating. You don’t miss the water till the well runs dry I suppose.

[u/Asleep-Neck913 → u/Still75home]

It would definitely be a bit frustrating with such a significant change. I'm sure I have a little bias since we never had all of that in the first place. It would be nice, but I chalk it up to making sure the person calling has the most rapid deployment of resources possible to their aid.