Ambulance fleets running with hotspots

GREAT NECK, NEW YORK: In Motion Technology announced that North Shore-LIJ Health System has deployed the company’s patented mobile hotspot technology to connect and manage one of the largest hospital-based ambulance fleets in the Eastern United States.

“We transport more than 60,000 patients to hospitals across the five boroughs of NYC and Long Island, and with this type of volume we have tremendous logistic, technological and communications demands,” said Alan Schwalberg, Vice President of Emergency Medical Services. “In Motion Technology is our single solution for mobile communications, and has served us flawlessly with our entire fleet and across our entire service area.”

In Motion Technology’s onBoard Mobile Gateway turns each North Shore-LIJ ambulance into a high performance rolling hotspot, providing reliable, secure connectivity for laptops, PDAs and other devices in and around each vehicle, as a press release says. The Gateway senses and selects the best available wireless network — and seamlessly roams across networks — to provide emergency communications anywhere in the city.

Prior to deploying In Motion Technology, North Shore-LIJ relied on overloaded analog radio networks for voice and data communications. In 2008, North Shore-LIJ began looking for a single mobile data networking solution that wasn’t tied to one wireless carrier or network.

Today, the Gateway provides an uninterrupted, high-bandwidth pipeline of information between onboard systems, dispatchers, local hospitals and other responders. Adding, changing or upgrading networks is simple, fast and cost-effective.

North Shore-LIJ is planning on using the Gateway to test iPads that will be able to share stroke victim information at the scene with neurologists and ER doctors at the hospital when seconds can determine the patient’s quality of life or survival. North Shore-LIJ is also exploring the Gateway’s utilization to streamline operations, enhance training, reduce response times and improve care.

North Shore-LIJ is an integrated healthcare provider in the state of New York and one of the largest in the nation. North Shore-LIJ employs more than 10,000 nurses, 9,000 physicians and 300 medics and EMTs. North Shore-LIJ’s fleet of 60 ambulances and command vehicles is claimed as the largest hospital-based fleet in the city.