If you have an emergency, dispatchers can get help started your way. But if it's a matter of life and death, an expert on the other end of the line, could save your life.

And that's exactly what La Crosse County is trying to do.

For the past two years the county, Gundersen Lutheran and Tri-State Ambulance have been working on a new emergency medical dispatch plan.

"A zero response time so even if people haven't responded in their vehicle, you've got someone on the phone who is specifically trained to provide you with medical assistance you can do yourself," says Jim Klock with Gundersen Lutheran.

Klock says it won't cost the taxpayer a thing, because Gundersen Lutheran already has the facilities and the capability to provide the service for free.

"The combined investment was about $250,000 to get it started and then there will be some on-going personnel costs because we continue to train and retrain dispatchers."

La Crosse County administrator Steve O’Malley says the E.M.D. plan will likely be approved by the county board.

"For a community our size it really is the standard of care that should be there. That when you call in you ask for an ambulance to come, that there is someone on the phone with medical knowledge to give you instructions as you're trying to help the person needing the care."

O’Malley says the plan will benefit everyone in the county, and ultimately, it will save lives.

"Certainly anyone who accesses emergency medical care and it gives recognition that our community tries to provide the best care that we can for our citizens."

Klock says leaders in Vernon, Houston and Winona County have already started talking about how to expand the program to their area.

"I think aside from the two or three counties that are interested, I think once the area that we provide service to, from an ambulance perspective, will come back to us and say 'Can we have this service as well?'"

Klock says the emergency dispatch service plan could begin in just a few months.