In the field:

SMHCEMS has six stations throughout the county to provide coverage to our response area. The most distant station being 39 miles from the main office. This creates logistical problems when it comes to communication, supplies and movement of electronic data.

To combat this problem we have instituted multiple technologies which include:

• Company wide email- each employee is assigned a company email account with web access to assist in communications between administration and field personnel.
• Electronic Forms- All company use forms are produced in Adobe Acrobat and are available by Lan, Wan and Intranet.
• VPN- Virtual Private Network. This provides a secure network connection between the substations, main office and portable computers.
• Field Data Collection- Each station is equipped with a computer running software that allows the Paramedic to complete their patient care documentation and then transmit it securely back to the SQL server at the main office where it is automatically brought into the patient billing software.
• Timesheet- All field personnel clock in and out while they are at work on an electronic time sheet that connects to the main office thru the VPN. This prevents the employee from having to come down to the main offices to fill out timecards.
• Remote Administration- all computers are administered remotely by the IS Department thru the VPN. This greatly reduces the down time of the computers and allows for remote troubleshooting when problems arise. The Remote Administration of the computers allows for the IS Department to work on computers from any location (24/7)whether they are at work, home or traveling.
• Alpha Pagers- all employees carry alphanumeric pagers on and off duty. We have a messaging console on every computer to facilitate rapid communication to all employees. We have further grouped the pagers by their work schedules to allow pages to go out to on or off going crews in one page. Crews also get dispatch information sent to them while enroute to the call.
• Interactive Web site- Allows students to schedule clinical hours with both the ambulance and hospital. The requests are made on a calendar that displays the currently scheduled students and openings. The request is then placed in a list for an administrator to approve. The request then becomes an entry on the calendar. The calendar also displays current scheduled events such as continuing education classes and departmental meetings.

Future projects include- Computer Aided Dispatch interfacing, automated notification of hospital closures and advanced web services.

In the Offices: