Firefighters saving time with PDAs

Another good article about the use of PDAs in the field...paramedics doing their part with paperless transmission and saving valuable times and lives at the same time.  BD

SAN MARCOS – Until recently, San Marcos firefighter/paramedics were spending hours each day answering questions and filling in bubbles on medical, insurance and billing forms at the hospital.

The new method uses FieldSaver personal digital assistants, or PDAs, loaded with customized electronic menus that reduce the procedure to about 10 minutes, said firefighter/paramedic Jason Dobbins. Often, many questions can be answered before getting to the hospital, he said.

The one-time startup fee for the FieldSaver program is about $40,000, he said, and operating/maintenance fees are $6,000 a year. The charge is not based on the number of PDAs – San Marcos has 12 – but on the number of primary ambulances.

So far, the new technology has worked perfectly, said Dobbins, who spearheaded the change. “Everyone's really liked it,” he said. “Everyone was so excited. They actually did want to learn it.”

The company created its first PDA program in El Cajon and demand has been growing, said Hood, who also works as an emergency room doctor. The state doesn't require fire agencies to collect its EMS data in a standardized format, Hood said. As a result, many departments are still collecting the old-fashioned way, he said, but he sees that changing soon.

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