EMS tech: a "flight radar system" for our road ambulances
a “flight radar system” for our road ambulances
If you’ve booked a long-distance medical transport by road ambulance, there are a few things you’ll want to know next. For instance:
- How do we know when the ambulance has set off?
- Where is our patient right now – and what if they get delayed?
- When can we expect them to arrive at our home or hospital destination?
Answering these questions is a critical task for the EMS Air Ambulance & Medical Repatriation Operations Team. One of the ways they do this is with the help of an advanced “telematics” system called Webfleet. Here’s how it works.
Navigation
Each vehicle in our road ambulance fleet is fitted with a “PRO Driver Terminal”, which is essentially a specialized satellite navigation device. It uses trillions of data points to calculate the optimal route and accurately predict traffic conditions. Since medical transports often work to extremely fast turnarounds, it means we can finalize our route even as our ambulance specialists are preparing the vehicle for departure (for more on this, see our recent blog: “Behind the scenes with our ambulance expert”).
Traffic
Webfleet supplements the satnav data with a complex network of live traffic information and algorithms, which help the crew to avoid jams, road closures and unexpected incidents once the journey gets underway. It also factors in time lost to things like traffic lights and roundabouts.
Tracking
Once the drivers log in to their Terminal, all the data from their journey gets fed into a central tracking system. We can monitor their location in real time, their speed and adherence to speed limits, and their changing ETA. We know when they’re taking stops or fuel brakes, and we can use these details to keep families and medical staff updated on the patient’s progress.
Emergencies
Webfleet provides critical support if a serious medical emergency develops en route. We can use the system to quickly identify the nearest suitable medical facility and remotely force a new address to the drivers’ Terminal, updating the destination and guiding the team swiftly to the local hospital or emergency ward.
Worldwide hub
All the data from our vehicles – wherever they are in the world – gets fed back to our Operations Centre in Dubai, UAE. A senior ops specialist keeps an eye on each ambulance as it moves towards the destination: they can track progress on tablets, computers and big-screen monitors around the main office. EMS runs a 24/7 ‘virtual office’ with live streams between our worldwide hubs, so it’s quick and easy to share journey updates with our technical and medical experts whenever we need to.
Why would you choose a road ambulance?
- To travel as directly as possible, even over long distances (typically 2,500km+)
- To avoid taking flights if they’re not completely necessary
- To reduce the number of transfers between aircraft and vehicles
- To reduce the overall cost of the repatriation…
- …but with the same high-quality, intensive-care support if it’s needed
Interested in reading more on this topic? You might find these articles helpful!
Behind the scenes on a road ambulance.
EMS tech: how our ambulance crews stay connected.
Ready for action: faster response times with ambulances in Venice and Barcelona.
Contact us
Need to talk? We’re here to help. Just get in touch with our friendly experts by phone, email or WhatsApp. Head to our Contact page for the details. You can also get a free, no-obligation cost estimate for your repatriation with our online pricing calculator.
Please note that EMS Air Ambulance & Medical Repatriation is not responsible for the content of external websites.