GPS Tracking ROI Tip ‘O The Hat
I often write here wondering GPS tracking users “don’t get it”. It’s a joyful day when I come across the ones that do:
Regional trauma center centralizes real-time tracking of ambulances and aircraft
OuterLink Corporation today announced that North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) is deploying its solution to more effectively manage, track and communicate with its fleet of 15 ambulances and single medical transport helicopter throughout its 150-mile rural coverage area. NMMC is a Regional Level II Trauma Center based in Tupelo, MS.
“The OuterLink solution provides us with a very important tool for managing our medical vehicle fleet throughout our extensive coverage area,” said NMMC Pre-hospital Director Josh Wenzel. “With OuterLink on board, we have established continuous visibility with our crews and we can communicate patient status prior to arrival at NMMC. This improves overall patient care and outcomes.”
OuterLink’s satellite mobile asset management solutions improve the safety and visibility of air medical transport flights, and enables the rapid deployment of aircraft to support medical crisis response missions. The OuterLink solution provides secure, real-time location tracking and two-way communications capabilities that enable voice and data exchange between the aircraft, dispatch and medical facility to improve response time and critical patient care. OuterLink’s flexible solutions offer operators the option to conduct simple flight location reporting or to deploy a centralized solution that allows complete visibility of all mobile assets…. full text here:
This is good news for the people of Mississippi, good news for the NMMC stockholders and good news if you ever need to call 911.
Some years ago I worked with a large ambulance company in the Northwest. Not only did they save money on normal operating expenses… enough to give an ROI in less than a year … they made money, big time. Their contract called for penalties if they exceeded certain response times and bonuses if they significantly bettered required standards.
By using their GPS tracking effectively they were able to take an average of one ambulance and crew off the duty roster per shift … that’s a couple hundred thousand per year savings right there, folks, … but they were able to achieve response times in the “bonus zone” more than 80% of the time. If you own, supervise or pay for ambulance services with your taxes and they aren’t using GPS, you’re bleeding money and you don’t even know it.
A quick final point on this item … OuterLink’s system uses geosynchronous communications satellites for the data links … so in the event of another Katrina or some other event that takes down the US’s all-to-shaky cellular/GPRS network the ambulances and the medical helicopter and the hospitals will still be in constant contact. Good stuff, and kudos to the folks who recognized it!