Wi-Fi Platform Sends Lifesaving Data Between Ambulances, Hospitals

Seconds can save lives — especially when a patient is being rushed to a hospital. And Wi-Fi platforms that transmit a patient’s medical information from the ambulance to the hospital are helping to save time.

By installing this technology in its ambulances, Rowan County (NC) is sending vital information to hospitals before a patient arrives, thus enabling better preparation and health-care response. Rowan County installed wireless communication platforms in its 11 ambulances within the county’s Emergency Medical Services Division so responders taking an individual to a hospital can transmit a patient care report to the facility prior to the ambulance’s arrival at the hospital, said Frank Thomason, the county’s chief of emergency services. The communication platform provides a Wi-Fi access point in the ambulances, making them function as mobile hotspots. Using laptops inside the ambulances, emergency responders fill out a patient care report and with the assistance of the communication platform, the information is transmitted wirelessly to the hospital. Also inside the ambulances, cardiac monitors are connected to the communication platforms so if a patient is suffering from a potential heart attack, the information regarding the individual’s heart rhythm is transmitted to the hospital before the ambulance’s arrival, Thomason said.