Local Answering Service Keeps Emergency Services Connected During Hurricane Sandy

Maple Shade, NJ: As doctors and hospitals from New York lost answering services during last week’s historic Super Storm Sandy, Ansercomm, a professional answering service company in Maple Shade, NJ helped keep them connected to hundreds of patients by providing vital communication services free of charge.

Local answering services in the New York area were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, said Michele Moken account executive with Ansercomm. After one of their clients they knew through Garden State Rotary of Cherry Hill told them of the trouble, Ansercomm jumped into action.

In the case of an emergency it’s all hands on deck,” Moken said.

The local provider said last week’s storm placed 70 percent of phone services in under stress.

Ansercomm has been fielding 20 to 50 additional emergency calls per day per each physician’s office in the New York area. They have also been answering calls for area hospitals, as well as for northern New Jersey chapters of the American Red Cross.

The volume was heavy, Moken said, but the company has offices in Florida to assist them in the event the overflow exceeded their capacity.

“Every employee is cross trained and Ansercomm operators pulled double and triple shifts to accommodate the overflow of calls for the American Red Cross and other medical offices,” she said.

The local service fielded calls from others looking for vital services. A Jersey City resident called reporting she had no food and people with destroyed businesses were looking for information on how to get help.

The local executive said the company made the decision not to charge during the emergency simply because, “it was the right thing to do,” Moken said.