Ambulances can save lives with the help of specially trained personnel and advanced medical and technical equipment. But for that to happen, they need to be in the right place at the right time. A recent cross-agency collaboration is getting help where it's needed more quickly.
In the past, ambulances were dispatched via one of three separate systems. If the closest ambulance was on a different system than the one the dispatcher was using, that ambulance couldn't be sent to the emergency. A project that combined the three dispatch systems into a single, integrated provincial system now lets operators send the closest available ambulance.
The work included updating computer hardware in ambulances, which need rugged yet compact devices to withstand varied road conditions without taking up too much space. eHealth worked with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) to test the new equipment before installing it in more than 65 ambulances in 12 locations ahead of the software rollout.
eHealth teams developed and now host the reporting environment for dispatch services, which is configured to give access to other agencies such as Medavie and Parkland Ambulance Services. With real-time tracking, the system identifies and dispatches the closest available unit, eliminating delays caused by transferred calls, and consolidation means continued operations across the province if a communications centre is down.
The work won the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency's award for Teamwork and eHealth's Executive Director of Enterprise Business Services and Chief Digital Information Officer Darren Myles says its success speaks to the power of cross-agency collaboration. “When we work together toward a shared goal of improving essential public service, we make great things happen."
