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San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services
Handled With Care
When emergencies strike, it's no time to sit down and wonder what
to do -- the time to prepare for a crisis is before it happens. And
that's the job of the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency
Services -- overseeing emergency protocol compliance for the more
than 2300 business facilities in San Joaquin County where hazardous
materials are stored or handled, as well as the dozens of public
safety agencies across the county who handle emergency responses at
these facilities. In times of emergency, seconds count, and quick,
efficient access to response plans and related information is
essential. And that's where FileMaker Pro makes a difference.
"Our office adopted FileMaker Pro as its primary database solution
in the early 1990s," notes Ronald Baldwin, the county Director of
Emergency Services. "The office was responsible for managing a
large amount of data from 2300 business sites, making it easy for
businesses to comply, thus improving the quality and accuracy of
data in the database and making the data immediately available to
public safety agencies for their use in emergency response. The
office also wanted a database application that could be developed
and maintained by non-technical persons in the office to eliminate
over reliance on outside consultants and third party
applications."
The office worked with Richard Carlson Consulting, Inc. to
implement a web-based Hazardous Materials Program Compliance
System, creating a web based interface to the main FileMaker Pro
database using WebStar and Lasso software. Businesses log into the
system using unique passwords, and are able to adjust or update
their emergency response plan information as needed. These updates
result in an automatic notification to Office of Emergency Services
personnel, so that hard copies may be printed out for backup.
Public safety agencies are issued their own passwords, granting
immediate 24-hour access to the entire database, so that if an
emergency happens, the necessary response plan is just a click
away. All telephone contacts or correspondence related to the
system can also be generated automatically from within the database
which contains over 5300 facility records -- both existing and
defunct businesses -- along with 18,000 records documenting
specific characteristics and quantities of individual hazardous
materials handled in the community. All of this information is
managed using a series of 10 related FileMaker Pro databases.
And it's an efficient system. "With the same number of people as we
had seven years ago, we now manage a program that has grown by over
30 per cent in that time," comments Ronald. "This has allowed us to
keep administration fees charged to businesses the same despite
rising costs. Businesses have commented that we have reduced their
workload for complying with this program from 7 hours a year to
just 10 minutes, through our progressive development of run-time
and now web-based electronic systems. FileMaker Pro has proven to
be a sound foundation for the development of our web-based
compliance system."
Contact information
Contact Info for Customer:Ronald Baldwin
Director of Emergency Services
San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services
408-987-7227
rbaldwin@co.san-joaquin.ca.us
http://www.co.san-joaquin.ca.us/oes/
Richard Carlton Consulting
Insert Contact's Title Here
Insert Contact's Company Here
707-422-4053
707-422-4903
info@rcconsulting.com
http://www.rcconsulting.com
Filemaker Contact:
Kevin Mallon
Public Relations Manager
FileMaker Inc.
408-987-7227
kevin_mallon@filemaker.com
http://www.filemaker.com
- In hazardous material emergencies, seconds count, and advance planning for emergency situations is vital. In San Joaquin County, California, emergency response plans are made instantly available over the web through a powerful network of FileMaker Pro databases.
- Government