Worldwide, emergency medical services (EMS) agencies respond to millions of calls each year. EMS and ambulance workers are already providing specialized medical care in a fast-paced environment, and staffing shortages and outdated technology are making their jobs even harder. Ambulances effectively function as small hospitals on wheels, and EMS workers are critical to the entire health care ecosystem — often in truly life or death situations.
Modern agencies need reliable technology like a next-generation public safety platform to overcome these challenges. Today’s public safety platforms coordinate seamlessly across the health care ecosystem and allow for more efficient resource coordination in the field. Next-gen public safety platforms not only have dispatch capabilities, but also provide real-time information during emergencies as well as powerful analytics and mobile tools.
Let’s explore how modern technology can support each step of an emergency incident.
Responding to emergencies
A call to 911/112/999/000 is usually the first step that triggers EMS and ambulance services, and both staff and technology play a part in determining the help required. Where one person might have a broken arm and not need an ambulance, another may be in cardiac arrest and need care right away.
Next Generation 911/112/999/000 (NG911/112/999/000) technologies like Nurse Navigator, a triage program designed to involve actual nurses, allow call-takers to send details to clinicians to determine the level of care needed and reduce the stress on first responders. These types of advantageous third-party applications can interface with modern public safety platforms.
“Clinicians can determine if the patient needs an ambulance response and may direct callers to alternative suitable services in their local area,” said Julie Somerville, client partner for Hexagon’ Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division. “Sorting these calls means providing the appropriate resources.”
Emergency responses need to be fast, efficient and consistent. Leveraging technology during an emergency can optimize response and determine the right resources, preparing EMS and ambulance crews to focus on responding to incidents that need their care most.
Getting to the scene
Once call-takers have the information they need about the type of emergency response required, dispatchers need to determine the most appropriate resources to send into the field. Emergencies that end up needing an ambulance may need specific help that only certain units can provide. A next-gen public safety platform can offer real-time information that puts an incident location on a map and compares the location to that of available ambulance crews.
Appropriately leveraging resources for emergency management is imperative; that’s when real-time information is essential.
“Real-time recommendations can be a game changer for EMS agencies that don’t already have that technology,” said Nick Chorley, director, EMEA public safety & security for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division. “For an event like cardiac arrest, crews have about eight minutes to get there. If one ambulance is recommended 5 miles away, and another ambulance becomes available 1 mile away, the closer ambulance will be sent.”
Jose Costa, technical manager for Hexagon’s Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial division, seconded Chorley’s insights, saying, “EMS depends on Recommend Unit to manage their events. Recommendations might be based on road time and could change as an emergency goes on. If anything changes, users will receive a notification.”
Recommend Unit is a HxGN OnCall Dispatch function that uses a combination of unit status, unit GPS location, road network travel time or distance and configured business logic to give a real-time recommendation of the type and number of units that best fit the needs of each incident’s characteristics. For every event created in the system, the Recommend Unit server sends a real-time recommendation, allowing a dispatcher to accept suggested units quickly, before dispatch.
The information available during an incident can be life changing, and agencies can use that same data after an emergency for post-event analytics.
Analyzing incidents
“Real-time information and recommendations, like rerouting from Recommend Unit, can make or break incident response,” said Chorley. “But analyzing those recommendations can also go a long way.”
Keeping records of emergency recommendations allows PSAPs to innovate based on agency-specific KPIs and the needs of their community. Once an incident is over, the real-time information that was used to drive the emergency response can be leveraged to discover technology an ambulance may need in the future, how to improve workflows or aid a post-emergency investigation. Providing this information across the public safety and health care ecosystems can help EMS and ambulance agencies better serve their communities.
Learn more
Modern ambulance and EMS agencies require solutions that help them coordinate seamlessly with hospitals and other facilities while adhering to standards and coordinating resources efficiently. They need technology that allows them to stage ambulance services, integrate with triage services, schedule patient transports and support alternative response models. The answer is a next-generation public safety platform.
