When the words “first responder” are used to describe a person, it might mean something different to whoever’s speaking.

A first responder, if defined, encompasses a few different careers and, with it, quite a few different tasks. A first responder could be a telecommunicator — the person who answers the phone when a 911 call is made and the first point of contact on the path to resolution of that emergency. A first responder could also be law enforcement or firefighters called to the scene of that emergency. It could mean a paramedic meeting up with an ambulance, to perform life-saving measures on a patient en route to a trauma center.

Those are separate roles that each first responder plays — each singular and specialized to fulfill a need. Over the last year, however, Beaufort County has been moving in another direction, one in which first responders are not so singular and separate, but melding into a greater plan.

It’s a multifaceted plan. Firefighters with volunteer squads throughout the county are being trained as first responders and becoming certified to give more care on the scene as they wait for EMTs or paramedics to arrive. They’ve also been trained to assist EMS squads with pit crew CPR, a measure exponentially proven to save more lives of cardiac arrest victims.

With the help of an EMS consultant, the hire of county EMS Director John Flemming and a study that encompassed all paid and volunteer squads, gaps in emergency medical services were studied. With the assistance of a grant from Vidant Community Foundation, those gaps are on their way to being filled with additional paramedic-level staff and vehicles place strategically around the county.

Then last week, Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office 911 Center went live with Emergency Medical Dispatch. Each telecommunicator went through a minimum 24 hours of training in order to extend the agency’s services. Now, resources will be dispatched according to a call’s severity — heart attacks, strokes, traumatic injuries will move to top response priority — and telecommunicators can walk callers through life-saving measures while EMS is on its way.

A county that has such a unique geography (a wide river splitting the county in half, creating rural, harder to reach pockets of population) must come up with unique solutions to provide services — and they have. By working as “spokes on the same wheel” of emergency services, first responders are building a better Beaufort County for all residents.