Unified Communications
Emergency response organization tackles scalability issues
State-of-the-art communications infrastructure helps ensure optimal care for patients.
by James Mustarde
In coordinating
an expanding fleet of helicopters, Air Evac
Lifeteam (AEL) began to experience the
physical limitations of its radio network,
operating with multiple hardware-based
dispatch consoles and multiple dispatchers
at each station, with no service
interoperability and limited system
survivability. These system constraints
threatened day-to-day operations, but also
had catastrophic implications, as the
company operates in areas commonly afflicted
by catastrophic natural disasters, such as
hurricanes, tornadoes and flooding.
With the
company’s number one priority, patient care,
at stake, AEL communications managers
embarked on a system upgrade that would be
put to the test when the company coordinated
critical evacuations during the 2008
hurricane season.
AEL, one of the
largest air medical operations in the U.S.,
responds to calls for emergency air medical
service from more than 635,000 members and
more than 1,300 hospitals and EMS agencies.
AEL serves rural citizens across a 12-state
region, including Alabama, Arkansas,
Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky,
Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee
and Texas.
Growing pains
AEL’s radio
network was originally based on bulky and
expensive proprietary hardware consoles.
These systems worked well when the company’s
network was small, but over time had become
inefficient, confusing and was operating
past capacity. There was no system
redundancy and no functional
interoperability. Furthermore, physically
accommodating future growth (i.e.,
installing new hardware) was no longer an
option, as the company simply ran out of
space.
One of the
biggest strains on the communications system
was AEL’s helicopter operation. The company
maintains more than 100 helicopters
stationed at more than 75 air medical bases.
This operation is coordinated by 25
dispatchers from a single emergency dispatch
center, with calls coming in from more than
600 hospitals and 700 EMS agencies.
In AEL’s previous
system, each communications console was
capable of handling just 48 channels. This
meant dispatchers had to operate two
separate consoles and two separate
microphones to account for the 75 channels
corresponding to the air medical bases. With
every second vital to patient survival,
dispatchers had to remember which console a
particular channel is on, and then which
microphone is connected to that console, an
even more vexing problem when call volumes
surge during a major accident or national
disaster.
Complicating
matters even further, the expense and size
of the existing hardware meant that AEL
could not physically fit additional
equipment in the limited desktop space
already populated by three monitors. As a
result, three to four individual dispatchers
were forced to share each set of consoles
instead of operating their own.
AEL also
recognized the potential pitfalls of its
current network survivability plan. AEL’s
9-1-1 dispatch center had no redundant
facility that would instantly assume control
in the event of a major natural disaster or
system failure. The entire communications
system was based on a weak point-to-point
architecture, in which each radio tower was
connected to a single corresponding circuit
at the dispatch center. This infrastructure
made it unfeasible to install a backup
dispatch center. It also meant substantial
maintenance costs and potentially fatal
repair delays in the event of a system
disruption.
Upon evaluation, AEL identified three acute
pain points: AEL was suffering from an
inability to grow; the channel limits and
size requirements of existing proprietary
radio equipment put their dispatch center
past capacity; and AEL’s system lacked
interoperability. For example, flight crews
experienced difficulty communicating
directly with call initiators and fellow
emergency groups. AEL also faced serious
reliability concerns. Legacy point-to-point
radio communications architecture prevented
the group from establishing a backup
facility.
The software
prescription
AEL began a search for a solution that would
provide every dispatcher instant access to
any helicopter from a single console,
establish a 1:1 ratio of dispatchers to
consoles, ensure effective interoperability
between radio channels and telephone lines,
and employ a network architecture that would
allow the implementation of a redundant
dispatch center.
Working with
radio systems integrator National Interop,
AEL conducted a thorough assessment of its
objectives, technical constraints and
budget. Based on AEL’s unique scalability
requirements, National Interop recommended
Twisted Pair Solution’s WAVE software, which
would eliminate the need to deploy any
additional hardware. This standards-based
software approach would alleviate the
scalability strains the organization was
experiencing and also deliver other critical
interoperability and redundancy benefits.
By not relying on
proprietary hardware, every dispatcher can
use a PC-based console from which they can
communicate on any radio channel with only
two clicks of a mouse. The consoles include
a customized user interface to ensure
optimal dispatcher performance. In addition,
the consoles had the power to easily expand
to more than 250 separate communications
channels.
Flight crews are
now able to use their radios to communicate
directly with the initiators of emergency
calls and the receiving hospitals. AEL,
which is continuing with the final stages of
the upgrade, put its new system to the test
during 2008 Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The
upgrade performed perfectly, as AEL’s
emergency workers effectively dispatched and
tracked hundreds of helicopter medical
evacuations from Texas-area hospitals.
“With a
hurricane, the number of patients needing
urgent medical attention or transfer from
one location to another can increase
exponentially,” says Don Looper,
communications systems manager at Air Evac
Lifeteam. “So it’s important that we have a
communications system in place that can
easily handle this increased demand.
Fortunately, our system is designed to offer
almost unlimited scalability, allowing us to
respond to critical events with absolute
confidence in our communications
capabilities.”
AEL’s new
approach to communications scalability also
ensures a higher standard of reliability.
Once all communications are managed across
an IP network, AEL will be able to leverage
that infrastructure to establish the backup
dispatch center mandated by the
organization’s business-continuity plan.
Thanks to AEL’s new state-of-the-art
communications infrastructure, adds Looper,
the company can continue to make patients
their top priority.
James Mustarde is director of marketing for Twisted Pair Solutions, Seattle, Wash.
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