|
The EMS Take: Spring 2022
|
|
The EMS Take with Gary McCarraher
Connecting EMS with high-power user equipment
|
|
|
Today’s EMS is so much more than a ride to the hospital. EMS providers administer lifesaving care, transmit live patient data to the hospital, and conduct telehealth sessions from remote locations. To do their jobs, EMS providers need reliable communications tools to support their mission. FirstNet is innovating new coverage solutions like high-power user equipment to make sure EMS stays connected wherever calls take them.
Maximizing FirstNet coverage with HPUE
High power user equipment, or HPUE, is especially helpful to EMS operating in hard-to-reach spots in rural and urban areas. HPUE brings FirstNet coverage into the nooks and crannies not covered by fixed cell infrastructure.
FirstNet’s HPUE product is called FirstNet MegaRange, and it’s transforming the way we approach access to coverage at the edge of a cell site. The technology boosts signal strength up to six times the normal cellular power to maximize the network’s coverage.
Stronger signals for public safety
FirstNet’s Band 14 spectrum is the only band in the United States licensed for HPUE. FirstNet MegaRange is designed to improve connectivity and throughput to FirstNet towers.
Following Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards, HPUE transmits stronger signals using FirstNet’s Band 14 spectrum and specially designed FirstNet modems. The increased signal provides a more reliable coverage area, improving uplink data speeds at the edge of the network.
Urban coverage in hard-to-reach spots
In urban environments, MegaRange can help improve connectivity where signal penetration is hindered by dense urban surroundings or in underground locations.
It boosts coverage in hard-to-reach spots like tunnels, basements, elevators, stairwells, parking garages, and building shadows. The stronger signal may help first responders in metropolitan areas better communicate in both indoor and outdoor locations.
Rural coverage wherever the ambulance goes
In rural environments, connectivity is improved at the edge of the network’s typical signal coverage in remote and maritime areas.
Bangs Ambulance operates in the rural Finger Lakes region of New York state, where the famous gorges, hills, and forest land can make communications challenging.
Prior to FirstNet, Bangs said they had about 60% coverage for all the mileage they traveled. When they switched to FirstNet, that coverage increased greatly. With FirstNet MegaRange’s stronger signals, they report almost 100% coverage.
“We provide services in areas with challenging terrain. With FirstNet MegaRange, our paramedics were incredibly impressed with the improved coverage helping them to deliver critical patient care,” said Brad Marzolf, Bangs Ambulance, Director of Information Services, Compliance Officer. “We plan to equip all our vehicles with FirstNet MegaRange.”
Having reliable coverage is important to Bangs Ambulance. While en route to the hospital, they are transmitting patient data like 12-lead electrocardiogram readings. A 12-lead EKG tests the heart’s electrical activity using a dozen electrodes attached to a patient’s body. This important information helps the hospital prepare for the right cardiac treatment when the patient arrives.
“We need to give [the hospital] reliable data. We need to send their vital signs to them,” said George Tamborelle, paramedic supervisor for Bangs Ambulance. “All of that can go over that link, but that link has to be reliable at all times. We can’t drop that transmission.”
Patient data can be sent from the ambulance to the hospital via FirstNet’s network’s reliable, prioritized, and secure connection. When needed, FirstNet MegaRange can improve connectivity and uplink data speeds—particularly at the edge of signal coverage.
Your experience
How would your EMS practice benefit from increased coverage with HPUE? What are your questions about the technology behind HPUE? I’d love to hear from you. Email me or find me or my colleagues at these events:
|
|
Introducing Jon Olson as new EMS expert
|
|
Jon Olson has joined the FirstNet Authority as the EMS subject matter expert, after a 31-year career in EMS in North Carolina. Jon previously represented the National EMS Management Association on the Public Safety Advisory Committee.
It has been a pleasure hosting the EMS Take for the past few months. I’m not going anywhere—sign up for the Fire Take to keep in touch!
|
|
|
|
The FirstNet Authority Board approved an investment to enhance in-building technologies – because public safety told us indoor coverage is a top priority. First responders can deploy these small cell technologies where they need it most: in police headquarters, fire stations, emergency communication centers, or field locations.
|
|
|
|
Emergencies know no boundaries, a reality that first responders live every day. That’s why coverage is king for public-safety communications. In a decade of FirstNet, the network is bringing increased coverage, more deployables, and 5G to the places where public safety’s mission takes them.
|
|
|
|
Did you know? The FirstNet Authority hosts webinars on how to use FirstNet’s unique public safety features. Register for our next session on extended primary users about FirstNet for hospitals, utilities, clean-up crews, and other personnel critical to incident response. Bookmark FirstNet.gov/events for more.
|
|
|
|
Every spring, the FirstNet Authority celebrates public safety during recognition weeks honoring those who serve in emergency communications, the fire service, law enforcement, and EMS, as well as public servants and volunteers. Thank you, first responders, for keeping our communities safe!
|
|
|
Tech, Innovations, and Hot Topics in EMS
Read what we’ve been hearing from public safety in the field about trends and drivers for EMS and emergency communications.*
The Cleveland Clinic recently shared their experiences in diverting unnecessary hospital admissions and providing care in the field with the pilot program called Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3). ET3 is offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reimburse ambulances that transport to places of care other than hospitals or that offer treatment in the field via telemedicine with no transport.
|
|
|
County government officials in Cecil County, Maryland, rely on FirstNet for communications during a crisis. The nationwide public safety broadband network ensures local government leaders are able to stay connected and maintain operations in both rural and urban areas of the county.
Watch the video |
|
Gary McCarraher is serving as the FirstNet Authority Subject Matter Expert for EMS and the Fire Service. Learn more about Gary or email him with your questions. |
|
|
Top photo: The FirstNet Authority Board visited the Navajo Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribal communities in New Mexico and heard about the communications challenges they face in both rural and remote areas, as well as transit and commercial areas within their jurisdictions. FirstNet Authority staff demonstrated how quickly deployables like compact rapid deployables can be set up in the field..
|
|
|
|
*FirstNet Authority may provide hyperlinks for third-party, non-governmental websites in order to offer additional context and added value for our users. FirstNet Authority does not endorse any product or service and is not responsible, nor can it guarantee the validity or timeliness of the content on hyperlinks outside of the federal government. In addition, users may wish to review privacy notices on non-government sites since their information collection practices may differ from ours.
|
|
|
|
|
