ZOLL Data: Blazing a new future for EMS software

I recently had the opportunity to tour ZOLL Data's headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado. I was impressed with the company and extensive array of software programs. All were developed from the ground up for EMS agencies.

There are a number of different companies offering software for EMS. Many consist of a few clever guys writing software plus a small marketing and customer service team.

ZOLL Data has more than 70 professionals writing code. Its offices are packed with software developers, utilization experts, IT consultants and everyone required to support them. It's a big operation.

I've heard of several EMS agencies that have faced a real nightmare when software they used suddenly became obsolete. It was no longer supported when an owner changed, somebody died, or a software company went out of business. ZOLL Data is a large and stable firm likely to remain in business for many years.

ZOLL has also been doing it for a long time. ZOLL Data was previously known as Pinpoint. ZOLL purchased that company back in October 1999. Pinpoint was founded in 1993 and developed an extensive collection of software programs. Today these EMS software products are called the RescueNet Suite.

The RescueNet Suite for EMS includes: 

• RescueNet Billing
• RescueNet Code Review
• RescueNet Crew Scheduler
 
• RescueNet Dispatch 

• RescueNet ePCR
 
• RescueNet Flight 

• RescueNet Insight
• RescueNet Link
• RescueNet Navigator
• RescueNet Resource Planner

RescueNet is a fully integrated data management system that offers 10 different program components. It centralizes information from all the different programs into a single system. As the number of installed components expand, so, too, do your benefits.

Data is entered once, and it automatically populates in the other programs. You enter the patient name into the ePCR, and you don't have to enter it again. This creates an opportunity to redistribute hundreds of hours of work every year. It also reduces potential duplication errors and related mistakes.

Today RescueNet ePCR is one of most popular programs of its type. It is in use in more than 450 different agencies across the U.S. More impressive is that it is also available for use across a wide variety of hardware platforms. You can use it on anything from a Windows laptop to an Apple iPhone.

More importantly, there are now two ways to buy it. For many years the RescueNet Suite was only available as a hosted enterprise solution. What that meant to EMS systems was they needed servers, IT professionals and financial resources to run the system on their computers. This tended to make the solution fairly expensive. For the most part, only busy urban and suburban EMS systems and larger private companies could afford them.

What I learned during my visit is they are quickly developing these same resources for smaller EMS agencies. The new web-hosted solutions can be purchased on a per-run basis. This makes sophisticated software much more affordable for smaller rural, private and volunteer providers.

Today four or five key programs of the RescueNet Suite are available online, but I expect that very soon all of them will be. If you are interested in a free demo, check out the online trial subscription to the right of this article.

For those of you who currently use or are considering newer ZOLL monitors and defibrillators, RescueNet Link can pull the clinical data from your medical device and put it in the patient record. Imagine how much better documentation could be if it included all the data. No more writing vitals on crumpled 4x4s and then trying to read and copy them later into the ePCR.

The system provides seamless information sharing between ZOLL's E-Series defibrillator/monitor, the RescueNet ePCR patient care reporting program, RescueNet Navigator vehicle mapping, and RescueNet CAD systems, including both Dispatch and CommCAD.

Telemedicine can streamline EMS and ER communications. It allows the ER staff to see the same data you see. No longer would you be required to recite a litany of numbers. You could focus communications on your impressions and treatment.

ZOLL Data is one of the largest EMS software companies. It has been supporting our industry for almost 20 years. That is a lot of time refining and perfecting software products. It really shows in the depth of the product line and in how well everything works together. 

RescueNet can provide big benefits to everyone in your organization, from the street EMTs and medics to billing, operations, management and Q.A.