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Wireless Snapshots
In a perfect world, all fire and EMS departments would have unlimited funds, and thus be able to equip their vehicles with the latest in wireless data technology. However, this is the real world, one where budgets and so-called “legacy” (the polite engineering term for “old and outdated”) radio systems stand in the way of such perfection. Nonetheless, many U.S. fire and EMS departments are pushing ahead with wireless data technology as far as their budgets will allow. Here are some snapshots of what various departments are doing city-by-city.
Philadelphia: EMS at the Leading Edge
When it comes to wireless data networking, the city of Philadelphia’s 40 EMS ambulances are at the leading edge. The reason: Every time a patient is picked up by a Philly EMS unit, their personal information is collected quickly by swiping their driver’s license through a Hammerhead pen-based handheld. Next, the paramedic fills in the patient’s medical and billing history by touching on the appropriate text options, which are displayed on the Hammerhead’s Palm-style screen. This information is then transmitted wirelessly to a Panasonic Toughbook laptop computer. Mounted in the front of the ambulance, it sends the data to the EMS dispatcher over high-speed cellular telephone circuits.
“These data let the hospital know what they’re dealing with before the patient arrives, and ensure that the right information goes to our billing department,” says Captain Rick Bossert of the Philadelphia Fire Department’s (PFD) EMS CQI (continuous quality improvement) unit. “Meanwhile, the data go to the PFD data warehouse, where we can use them to analyze and create reports about our technicians’ performance.” All the city’s EMS management software is supplied by Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), a third-party business process supplier, which also handles Philadelphia’s billing.
In addition to radically improving data collection by paramedics, the city is able to track each ambulance’s location using onboard GPS receivers. Armed with these data, PFD computer-aided dispatch can reliably select the closest crews to send to incident scenes, and even provide these crews with accurate driving instructions.
As mentioned above, PFD officials also use these data to evaluate how their paramedics are doing on the job. “For instance, every morning we analyze cardiac arrest cases from the previous day,” says Captain Bossert. “We can tell which medics are responding quickly and which others seem to need some help. We make a point of e-mailing both groups with comments, because it is just as important to recognize on-the-job excellence as it is to remedy problems as soon as they’re noticed.”
Philadelphia’s adoption of wireless technology has brought its EMS units to the forefront of emergency data management. For departments seeking examples to guide their own upgrades, Philly is worth studying.
Los Angeles: 31 Years of Wireless Data
As astounding as it may seem, the Los Angeles Fire Department has had wireless data terminals installed in its trucks and ambulances since 1973. Of course, the units deployed during disco’s heyday were somewhat simpler than those in use today. To be precise, they were LAFD-built black boxes known as “digicoms” (not to be confused with products made by the company of that name), measuring 9" by 5" by 4", equipped with a few pushbuttons and the kind of numeric dials found on some bicycle locks.
“The system worked by having the driver manually set their vehicle ID using the dials,” says LAFD Public Service Officer Brian Humphrey. “They could then use the buttons on the unit to radio back this ID along with basic status indicators such as ‘en route to scene’ and ‘available.’”
A second generation of the digicom box subsequently allowed ambulances to indicate that they were transporting patients to hospitals. In either instance, digicom users quickly developed calluses on their thumbs, because they had to punch in their position every time they crossed one of Los Angeles’ many fire districts.
“The adoption of this wireless data technology, simple as it was, allowed the LAFD to enhance the longevity of the somewhat outdated communications system we were using at the time,” says Humphrey. “We were operating on the low VHF band at 33 MHz, which was an old allocation. Despite the problems that 33 MHz presented for us, we did have many fans across North America who enjoyed listening in…via a phenomenon known as ‘skip.’ Sometimes they could hear us better in Boston than we could hear ourselves in Los Angeles.”
To improve the LAFD’s data communications, the city moved its broadcasts to eight channels in the 506–512 MHz UHF band in 1988. “This allowed us to expand and speed up our data transmissions,” says Humphrey. “We’ve remained on this band since then.” As well, the old digicoms have been replaced—initially by mobile data terminals in the 1980s, and then by Panasonic Toughbook notebook computers. With these computers and radio communications, LAFD’s nearly 600 trucks and ambulances can indicate their positions and status as required. They can also receive information about the incident scenes they are heading to, and query hospitals as to the availability of beds for emergency patients. “Our system lets us check the status of the nearest four hospitals to the sending vehicle,” says Humphrey. “This is important, because we are often diverted from the physically closest hospitals due to a lack of staff or beds.”
With 31 years’ experience of wireless data transmission, one might expect LAFD to have this technology down pat. But they don’t, Humphrey says. The department is still in need of programs that can use these data more effectively and generate real-time resource deployment snapshots at a moment’s notice. “We are drowning in data, yet thirsting for knowledge,” he explains. “Data are like sand on a beach, while knowledge is a sandcastle. We need software that will put these data into meaningful forms that can be analyzed from multiple angles.”
Columbus, Ohio: Moving Into the Future of Wireless Data
Right now, the Columbus Division of Fire (CDF) relies on basic wireless data transmissions to link 34 engines, 15 ladders, five heavy-rescue units and 32 medics, plus a host of CDF command and support vehicles.
“We’re using mobile data terminals inside our trucks and ambulances, which essentially carry text messages over the 800 MHz band,” says Mike Fultz, CDF’s public information officer. “Although our system is graphically based and does support some onboard mapping functions, in general most of our traffic is text.”
The CDF’s 800 MHz network runs over EF Johnson equipment. In addition, the city’s EMS units are now equipped with pen-based tablet and handheld computers to document patient medical and billing information. The documentation is linked by wireless fidelity, or WiFi—otherwise known as wireless networking—to mobile data terminals within the units, which communicate the information to the CDF dispatch center via the 800 MHz band. Like Philadelphia, Columbus is using third-party billing services provided by ACS. This allows the fire division to bill the other applicable levels of government and private insurance companies for EMS services.
Nashville: Deploying WiFi Networks to Stations
Nashville, TN, has 36 fire/EMS stations scattered across the city, and no centralized computer network to bind them together. The result: When a new policy comes down from the chief, the Nashville Fire Department (NFD) has to send out the orders by mail, fax, or whichever senior officer is available to report the news in person.
“The fire department management information system is currently a paper jungle,” says NFD Assistant Chief of Training David Warman. “We spend too much of our time collecting data on paper and moving the paper around.”
To solve this problem, the NFD has decided to move into the 21st century by networking all its 36 stations together on a common local area network (LAN). The goal is to vastly reduce the amount of paper being generated, while speeding up and generally improving communications citywide.
To do the job, the NFD is deploying Cisco Systems’ wireless networking, operating in the unlicensed 5.8 gigahertz band. “Compared to running wires, deploying wireless is much, much cheaper,” explains Warman. “We just have to open up our computers, plug in the Cisco wireless cards, and then have the signals transmitted using the 5.8 GHz antennas [mounted on top of the station houses] throughout the city. Not only is this more affordable than running wires, but we can also deploy it much faster. At present we have 30 stations online, and the rest will be connected soon.
“Our new technology hardware and particularly our new management information software will make it much easier for our firefighters and company-level officers to complete reports, and will free up time for our mid-level line managers to focus on more essential activities,” he adds. “Currently they are forced to spend too much time picking up and delivering the mail.”
The city of Nashville is also planning to extend WiFi to its 157 fire and EMS vehicles, using “ruggedized” laptop computers. “Our goal is to run the data over our existing Motorola 800 MHz digital radio network,” Warman says. “This would allow us to send patient medical and billing information directly from our ambulances into our main headquarters database.”
As for when this might come to pass, right now, the target date is open-ended, he admits, referring to the department’s request-for-proposal protocol. “Because of budget constraints, it may be some time before we put together an RFP.”
Seattle: Committed to Wireless
The Seattle Fire Department (SFD) is “fully involved” in using wireless data technology, says Christopher Lombard, who works for the SFD’s special operations and communications sections. “We’re currently running a mobile computer system that has been interfaced to our computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system,” he says. “It links about 100 of our trucks and ambulances to our headquarters, using CDMA [digital] high-speed wireless from Sprint. We’re also running a mobile mapping system in our units, which uses onboard Trimble GPS receivers to monitor their locations and report them back to dispatch. And we’re developing a mobile records management system (RMS) for wireless delivery to our vehicles—this will provide units with building plans, inspection histories and hazmat forms.”
This isn’t all. SFD ambulances are also able to transmit medical telemetry to receiving hospitals, again by commercial wireless service. “When we went heavily into wireless a few years ago, we debated whether to use a commercial service or build a network ourselves,” Lombard says. “Given the fast pace of technological change, it just didn’t make sense to spend taxpayer dollars on building and maintaining our own network. This is why we went with Sprint.”
Typically, the SFD’s data move at about 64 kbps or better over the network, a speed that is similar to telephone ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) digital dial-up lines. “We are also considering building our own pseudo-WiFi service, which is touted as moving data as fast as 11 mbps whenever units are close to WiFi gateways,” he says. The data are received on wireless modem cards housed inside Data9-1-1 Mobile Data Systems terminals, which are installed at the front of each SFD vehicle. Designed to mount on a vehicle’s dash, these terminals are color touchscreen computers that have been ruggedized. They are Windows-based and able to interface with all wireless radio networks, according to Lombard. “We chose the Data911 because it is based on a modular design,” he says. “This means we can upgrade these units as needed by removing the cards containing their CPUs.”
In general, the SFD’s adoption of wireless technology is working well for the Emerald City. The only downside to date is GPS: Sometimes it’s hard to get a location fix due to Seattle’s natural and manmade canyons alike. “Fortunately, our Trimble GPS receivers are equipped with ‘dead reckoning’ algorithms that extrapolate SFD vehicle positions based on the last available satellite signals,” Lombard says. “The…units are equipped with sensors that pick up and analyze clues such as the vehicle’s speed and direction of travel, then calculate the vehicle’s location on the basis of these data.”
Conclusion: Some Real Progress in Wireless Data Deployments
Many U.S. fire and EMS departments are making great strides in deploying wireless data applications. Some, such as Los Angeles, have long histories of using this technology; others, like Nashville, are just starting to grasp the possibilities of wireless.
Then again, there are other U.S. towns and cities where wireless has yet to make inroads into fire and EMS. Usually the reason is money, or rather, the lack thereof: Up against all-around tight budgets, fire chiefs can have a hard time winning approval for wireless data deployments.
So what can they say to help loosen local purse strings? There’s no doubt that fire response vehicles with access to internal building maps are better equipped to save lives and reduce property damage. Data terminals inside ambulances not only improve the level of care available to victims, but help cities manage their overtaxed hospitals by electronically referring patients to those facilities that are available. They can also help with third-party billing, which can speed the refund of EMS expenses into city coffers.
Ultimately, wireless data save lives, improve first responder resource management, and can even help city governments get repaid faster. This is the bedrock of the case for wireless data inside fire trucks and ambulances, and it is why so many cities have already adopted and deployed this technology.
