Oxford County Paramedic Services has a wide geographical range of responses. Interdev Technologies provides them with the robust Mobile Data Terminal, CADLink, to raise their efficiency.
Oxford County Paramedic Services covers a population of 111 000 (2016) that has grown significantly over the past couple of years.
Oxford County Paramedic Services has a unique balance of rural and urban responses. On a given day the crews can respond to an apartment building, and their next call can be an accident happening on a distant farm, or a car accident on 401 Highway.
This call diversity requires a Mobile Data Terminal (MDT) that can easily navigate in both urban and rural areas. It must work even when there are inconsistencies with network connectivity.
Because Oxford County is close to several Centres of Excellence, the paramedics can use bypass protocols where they end up outside the jurisdiction. For paramedics, having an MDT with a very strong mapping feature is vital.
CADLink is a mobile data terminal and data integration tool that gives paramedics the opportunity to drastically reduce response times. It instantly provides crews with call information from the dispatch center, populates the ePCR with available data and plots the fastest route to the emergency destination.
Ryan Orton, Superintendent of Education & Training at the Oxford County Paramedic Services, says that the auto-populating of ePCR forms was a big success among paramedics.
“The integration of CADLink and our iMedic ePCR is fantastic. Now that we have a real-time data connection with the communication centre, we don’t need to do a follow-up after every call. CADLink gets our crews back on the road in no time.”
Prior to implementing CADLink, Oxford County Paramedic Services had limited GPS software in their vehicles. They had some ad hoc systems in place, but at the end of the day, paramedics ended up using paper maps.
“Before, we had to get the information from the dispatch centre, look it up on the computer, figure out how to get there – it could take some time before we started driving, especially when the call was outside of Oxford County,” – Ryan Orton said.
CADLink navigation and mapping became a big improvement for the service: a robust mobile data terminal not only lays out the best route but also saves time.
We have Wi-Fi at the stations and hot spots in our vehicles, so by the time we get in the truck, the map is already loaded and ready for us. We can take off right away. It frees up the crews and saves so much time.
Although CADLink requires a network connection to load the address, once the route is laid out, the maps stay in place unless the crew’s path significantly alters from the route. The maps are installed locally on the device, and the vehicle’s GPS will continue to plot the route even in areas with inconsistent Wi-Fi connectivity.
Oxford County Paramedic Services has CADLink integrated with Municipal 511 that provides them with real-time data on the traffic and construction, which helps paramedics to get to calls quickly.
The decrease in average ePCR time completion
The decrease in triggered operational compliance rules
In April 2020, Oxford County Paramedic Services attended an initial project kick-off meeting with Interdev – and a month later, on May 7th, 2020, the CADLink mobile data terminal was already operational throughout the service.
During the CADLink implementation, Ryan Orton was the main contact, and no other resources or people were required from the service. Since the hardware was already in place, the work scope was minimal. Interdev’s Client Services team completed it remotely with Ryan’s assistance.
During the implementation, Ryan stayed in contact with Mohammad Al-Hariri, Interdev’s Director of Client Services. Together, they rotated trucks and tablets, installing mobile data terminal one by one on each laptop.
“It was a little time-consuming, but it wasn’t hard at all. Sometimes I’d even leave a truck idling outside and replace the tablets quickly while Mohammad was working on them, installing CADLink remotely.”
For most paramedics, it took one shift to feel comfortable with the MDT.
“CADLink is very intuitive. No need to spend a lot of time behind the wheel to figure it out. It’s an app that runs itself,” Ryan said.
Wondering if CADLink will be the right fit for your service? Read our F.A.Q. on CADLink implementation, or contact our representative right now.