Imagine working in the back of an ambulance, hooking a patient up to an ECG, and then using a cell phone to dial the hospital to send the ECG data. Now you can't find the cell phone, the battery is dead or you are in an area with no coverage. This is what our nation's paramedics deal with every day.

In 2004, the Richmond Ambulance Authority (RAA) realized the EMS and paramedics in the field, it would significantly improve their services. As they worked through their strategic plan, they quickly realized traditional solutions were not going to be adequate.

Richmond Ambulance Authority's deployment of In Motion's onBoard™ Mobile Gateway in early 2006 has allowed them to extend their IT infrastructure to their paramedics, making them a more integrated part of the organization. The In Motion onBoard™ Mobile Gateway is a cognitive wireless system that turns ambulances into secure local area networks that sense and select the best available wireless network, enabling emergency medical technicians to access and disseminate information from the field.

Through this implementation, RAA have not only simplified the task of their paramedics but have seen dramatic improvements in many areas. For example, Richmond Ambulance Authority has seen reductions in response times (> 8%), paramedic communications efforts (50%) and improvements in dispatch times (>70%) and fleet life-expectancy (by 20%, four to five years per vehicle). The savings are substantial for providers and benefits to the public are clear – improved patient care. Richmond Ambulance Authority has also seen data plan savings, reduced training costs, simplified network upgrades and flexibility in applications and operations. They estimate having reduced their total mobile data communications costs by 50-90%.

Richmond Ambulance Authority has implemented technology that has enabled them to significantly improve their operations and emergency medical services to the people of Richmond. Their exemplary record is well known in EMS, and they set the standard for High Performance EMS operations nationally and internationally. By adopting a communications strategy and platform that enables them to add new applications in the future, without changing the communications infrastructure, they are setting a benchmark for the future of EMS in the United States.

Learn how In Motion helps Mecklenburg EMS and Puckett EMS.