FirstNet Brings High Quality, Efficient Care Directly to the Patient

FirstNet brings a high-quality, efficient communications network to the field Photos courtesy FirstNet Senior Public Safety Liaison, Kyle S. Richardson Ask any EMT or paramedic why they do what they do, and I can almost promise you they'll all give some form of the same answer: They went into this field to help people. Quality patient care and positive outcomes are at the very core of EMS. Today's EMS responders have tremendous capabilities to provide care to our patients, and to a very limited degree that capability is enhanced using mobile broadband communication with our medical direction system. Unfortunately, before FirstNet became a reality, public safety had no effective priority over public use of commercial broadband networks. Thus, we limited our use to a few text-based applications such as patient care reports (PCRs), 12lead ECGs and the occasional picture. Even sending those limited data files was often hampered by network congestion. The result was that data was sent slowly or not at all, and that's just not good enough for public safety use. Real, dedicated mobile broadband offers much more capability, including full motion video, medical imaging (e.g., ultrasound or CT scans), and a host of other data- intensive uses. The FirstNet network, available today, gives public safety a dedicated network that enables us to make use of these new treatment technologies. It's a network we can depend on with the capabilities we need.
Source: JEMS Administration and Leadership - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Communications & Dispatch Operations Source Type: news