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, Hillside, and Maplewood.

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 two primary medevac helicopters NorthSTAR and SouthSTAR.  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 NorthSTAR section of our website for further information.

Related Links:  EMS Radio System | Technical Services Division

Core dispatch services performed by REMCS:

• University Hospital EMS/Newark Citywide Dispatch & Communications
• 9-1-1 Public Safety Medical Dispatch Point
• Emergency Call Screening
• Primary Dispatch Services to Irvington Fire, Hillside Fire, Maplewood Fire, and Maplewood First Aid Squad
• New Jersey State Police JEMSTAR Communications Center
• Dispatch of the University Hospital Critical Care Team (CCTT)
• Medical Telemetry Patching between field units and UH-ED base physicians
• Support and dispatch for UH-EMS Special Operations Group (SOG) Deployments
• Support of the UH-EMS Emergency Response Team (ERT), SMART Team, and DMAT-1
• Support of New Jersey OEM Task Force-1 (Urban Search & Rescue)
• Primary communications hub for the New Jersey EMS Task Force
• New York City Mutual Aid Mobilization Point
• National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) of NJ/NY Metro Region
• UH-ED Shock-Trauma Team Paging
• UH-ED Cardiac and Brain Attack Team Paging
• UH-ED Trauma, Medical, and Pediatric Consults