With a significant increase in the number of emergency cases, transportation of the patients to the nearest hospital as early as possible is the need of the hour. As per the National Institute of Emergency Medicine (NIEM) report in September 2018, more than 20 per cent of patients who require immediate medical care die solemnly due to traffic delays from rural sectors every year. On top of it, Indian cities cannot have separate lanes for emergency purposes like developed countries due to the shortage of road planning and infrastructure.
There are many examples of an ambulance getting stuck in the traffic with no option but to wait for it to get cleared. This wait sometimes exceeds from minutes to hours, leaving the patient to die because of a lack of treatment at the proper time. To overcome this hazard and save lives, emergency ambulances today are equipped with GPS & radio technologies tracking system that assists in live tracking and other multi-faceted features listed below:
(Image Courtesy: International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET))
- Assign the nearest Ambulance: The live tracking of every ambulance enables the manager to assign an ambulance that’s nearest to the emergency location as soon as the incident is reported at the hospital. Thus, the response time for an ambulance to reach the site of an emergency is minimised.
- Assess Driver’s Behaviour: Through GPS systems, the manager can keep track of the notifications, route history, and activeness of the ambulance from their fleet. It further enables the manager to understand the behaviour of the ambulance driver and paramedics therein.
- Securing the Ambulance: The geo-fence feature in the GPS/radio technologies system sends an alert to the control room if an ambulance crosses a set perimeter. It is useful in securing the ambulance and high-tech machinery available within for emergency medical care of the patients.
- Real-time Data to Hospitals: The system provides live locations along with the speed of an ambulance while tracking it. This real-time data enables the hospitals to prepare themselves with medicines and necessary equipment for an emergency case before the ambulance arrives.
- Curtail Expenses: GPS System generates various reports like stay report, mileage report, advanced geo-fence, etc. These reports help the manager to plan the servicing and maintenance of the ambulance vehicle and saving fuel expenses.
- Maintain temperature: The manager can keep track of the temperature in the ambulance. Any change in the temperature can affect the equipment and medications. GPS, thus, helps the manager to know the temperature changes through a notification in the control room itself and accordingly instruct the paramedics in the ambulance to maintain it.
- SOS & Alert: The SOS button in the ambulance can alert the manager on being triggered by the ambulance driver in case of any emergency. The staff in the control room can instantly send help to the ambulance on receiving an SOS alert.
- Multiple Admin Access: The radio technologies and GPS system offer multiple admin access which can help the emergency service providers to assign access to different managers for different locations. It further improves productivity and minimises the response time during an emergency.
(Image Courtesy: International Journal of Innovative Research
in Computer and Communication Engineering)
Thus, it is clear that GPS and radio technologies system in ambulances has improved the response time during emergencies. However, there is still a lot of scope for advancement in technologies to further benefit the healthcare and Traffic Control sectors. It won’t be wrong to say that these are the two major technology demanding sectors and only organisations offering such advancements must be qualified as emergency ambulance service providers. Ziqitza Healthcare has all types of ambulances fitted with GPS for quick response during emergency care. The GPS system has enabled the Ziqitza ambulances to reach the accident spot within the golden hour. Not only this, the system has even helped staff to stay alert and improve their coordination during emergencies.