Area hospitals have teamed up with the Alachua County Fire Rescue to update wireless routers in ambulances, making communication between dispatched vehicles and hospitals more efficient.
All fire rescue, UF Health Shands and North Florida Regional Medical Center rescue units have had new routers installed, which will maximize the function of existing cardiac monitors, radio communication signals and computer connections in each emergency vehicle, according to Harold Theus, assistant fire rescue chief.
“When it comes to people’s lives, there is no time to waste,” said Mark Sexton, Alachua County spokesman.
Vehicles were previously hooked up to a 3G network, Theus said, which was not as reliable or as fast as the new routers’ 4G LTE access, which cost about $41,200.
UF finance sophomore Alexandra Hernandez said she was excited to hear about the new router updates.
“I think that anything that is helping the patients get well at a more expedited rate makes a positive difference,” said Hernandez, 19.
Theus expects other counties to implement this change because of the promising results produced so far.
“Alachua County has one of the best cardiac save rates in the state of Florida, and this system will only add to that,” Theus said.
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 10/22/2014]
