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AMS "Ambulance"

Category

Computerized ambulance dispatch systems
Medicine and pharmacy

Description

AMBULANCE is an integrated solution to automate ambulance response services of any scale. It covers all responding schemes, from receipt of calls and deployment of resources to statistical handling, scheduling and rostering, medical supplies management, as well as automation of co-responders. 

Functionality

Receipt and documenting of calls (accident and emergencies, no-emergencies, patient transfers scheduled and urgent);

• Automatic prioritizing of calls;

• Real-time dispatching of received calls;

• Vehicle locating and time-checking;

• Call details maintenance;

• automatic shift closing;

• daily statistics summary - daily reporting;

• rostering and reporting on roster variances;

• medications and bandages management;

• automatic reporting into categorized directories for future references;

• greases management;

• generation of new report forms and statistics.

Main Features

• elimination of need to reenter information;

• simple and easy operation owing to help directories and templates availability;

• complete interchangeability of keyboard and mouse;

• configurability of workstations to the needs of a customer;

• extension and modification of static information used in the system (crew members, staff personal data, vehicle fleet, street names etc.);

• unauthorized access protection, data entry authorization;

• system response to incorrect user action;

• help facilities and prompt messages (quick context search).

The system is designed to

• automate logging of incoming calls for ambulance service; 
• facilitate the operator to make quick and optimal decisions on ambulance crew profile;
• provide the right choice of an ambulance crew (according to call priority, ambulance crew profile and caller location);
• ensure automatic call processing, monitoring vehicles, ambulance crew timing;
• enable automatic statistics capture for twenty four hours resulting in a daily report under thirty headings;
• provide a wide range of reports and statistics using the sharable data base;
• manage the spending of medicines;
• ensure archiving for an arbitrary number of years.

Benefits of the system

• simple and easy to use operation for medical staff, which results in performance growth;
• complete transfer to paper-free technology;
• quick response to calls in peak hours;
• reliable round-the-clock operation and crash recovery;
• flexibility to add in or update statistical information (e.g. a map of the city, ambulance crew lists, medical staff lists, fleet of vehicles, etc.);
• capability to accumulate the names of streets unknown to the system so as to enter their whereabouts later when convenient for the operator;
• high level of comprehension: sufficient prompts and advice, adequate response to all possible wrong actions taken by users;
• protection from unauthorized access;
• saving of overhead expenses through optimal routing of vehicles;
• better usage of human resources to improve the quality of services;
• improved staff scheduling;
• all types of information support for the top management to help gain the efficiency of ambulance service.

Composition
The system comprises eight functional types of workstations:

1. call receptionist’s workstation;
2. workstation of senior physician on duty;
3. controller’s workstation;
4. inquiry officer’s workstation;
5. statistician’s workstation at the central office;
6. inpatient administrator’s workstation;
7. call logging operator’s workstation;
8. shifts scheduler’s workstation.

Kernel
The kernel of the system is a data bank containing three information types: static, dynamic and statistical.

Static data include:

• data on staff of the ambulance service;
• data on fleet of vehicles;
• data on subdivisions and ambulance crews;
• electronic map of the city;
• data on all medical institutions of the city;
• causes for a call and diagnoses;
• allocation of streets to local policlinics.

Dynamic data include:

• shift schedules for a month for the whole staff;
• work orders for the coming days;
• slips on each call accepted;
• medical reports on each call served (call cards);
• calls refused to be served;
• layout of ambulance crews per hour during each shift (Puchkov table);
• data on inpatient’s state of health after being served (slip to an accompanying document);
• all calls for specialized crews and repeat calls;
• current day resume (dispensary service, road traffic accidents, deaths, cardiac infarctions, etc.);
• calculations made relating to inpatients (the dead, hospitalized, number of places occupied by inpatients, etc.).

Statistical data:

• multiple reports and statistics stored in the database as a result of every 24 hour data processing.

Implementations
Ambulance (Informix)
Result - round-the-clock operation at Ambulance Service in a large Russian city over 6 years
Project’s specifications - DBMS - Informix, OS - Unix, Clients - Unix workstations, 20 terminals.

Operating Environment: Borland Delphi, Microsoft Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/2003, BDE, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, OpenReport.

Ambulance (MS SQL Server)
Result - Preparation for Beta testing
Project’s specifications - DBMS - MS SQL Server, Clients - Windows 9.x/NT.