By Barclay Bishop
WJBF
AUGUSTA, Ga. — When you call 9-1-1 for an emergency - the amount of time it takes an ambulance to reach the scene could mean the difference between life and death. Now some new technology is helping one local emergency service company become more efficient than ever.
Gold Cross EMS is only one of seven across the country that now has new software that helps dispatchers see all of their ambulances in real time. Before - there would be about a 15 to 20 second delay before they could locate the trucks. Now they have 3 different options - all of them showing dispatchers the ambulance’s location right way. The major advantage to this is now when a 9-1-1- call comes in and the location of the scene is typed into the computer - it uses the GPS tracking device located on the truck and automatically tells the dispatcher the closest truck to send. That wasn’t the case before.
“The best way was just knowledge of knowing where your truck was. We had a recommend button but it wasn’t as accurate, now these maps are much more accurate,” said Steven Vincent, IT Director for Gold Cross EMS.
Full story: New Technology Helps Make Ambulance Service More Efficient