Radio VS Telephone

[futuremedic33]

Is it known to anyone if there are any federal standards requiring ambulances to keep a radio onboard that is capable of communicating with the hospital (such as HEAR or UHF Med Channels)? Most every agency in our area are switching from the HEAR system to cellular telephones, in which, are not the most reliable communications tool. In my opinion, I prefer to use the radio over the phone (with exception of certain types of calls), because it is very dependable. Which does your agency usually use?

Thanks!

[hageremtp]

We use cell phone mostly, only because the hospitals in our area dont man the radios enough.

[flashover113]

Most of us that I know of in IL still use the radio. We do have the cell phone mounted next to the radio just in case. There are times where we may get out of radio range and the cell comes in handy. The phones dont sound like a bad idea for some calls when every other house has a scanner and you are trying to keep some confidentiality.

[twocuts]

we have an 800mhz trunking system and each hospital has a base station with a unique channel. As a backup we will use a phone. There are regulations however, that if you have a radio for the hospital, it has to be recorded; unless something has changed.

[ADSNWFLD]

We use the cell almost exclusivly, but I would rather have a radio. The rig is still capable of using the MERCI radio.
Anything can happen to the cell system, being third party but the T radio is yours.
When world com went belly up we lost service for about a day. It wouldn't have happened with a T-radio

[bigJ164019]

Originally posted by twocuts
we have an 800mhz trunking system and each hospital has a base station with a unique channel. As a backup we will use a phone...

Me too!

[strippel]

Our primary form of communications is the cell phone. We just got Nextels (yea!), and gave up Singular, which sucked. Our medical director likes to be able to "talk" with us.

We communicate with 3 different "parent" hospitals. One does not have a functioning Med radio base, and the only way of communicating is by phone (taped line). The second has Med radio, and Hear, but I don't think the staff knows how to use either. The third (where our medical director resides) we use hear, unless we are looking for orders, or are bringing in a trauma. Then we MUST call be phone.

We were not installing Med radios in our new vehicles, because we didnt use them. The regional EMS agency yelled at us, and we had to take money budgeted to buy new 800 mhz, and buy Med radios. PA requires Med radios in all ambulances.

[IAMedic]

"Squad 51 to Rampart, come in Rampart!!"

In my neck of the woods, cellular service is very bad as we are in a valley. So we rely on radio's 99.9% of the time. We use regular handhelds and mobile units.

[Kiernan]

We solely use Nextels. We don't have a working radio system since our repeater failed and was never fixed. (That was YEARS ago.)

[LandsEnd05]

We primarily use the radio. We do have a cellular phone on the bus that we use sometimes. We have several areas in our district where neither one will work at times due to being in canyons.

[N2DFire]

We used to have a radio channel specifically for Unit to Hospital traffic, however when the hospital remodeled the E.R. a few months ago - no one bothered to hook their base unit back up so for now we are cellular exclusive.

This really bothers me because we too are rural and have large areas where cellular just don't cut it.

As for the question on Rules & Regs - I don't know of any on a federal level, but I do know that Virginia has communications requirements for Ambulances at the state level so you may want to try researching your state's rules & reg's governing EMS. It may be there.

[codeblue81]

Around my part of Illinois we use both Radios (MERCI) and phones (JEMS).

The JEMS console is to be used for ALS only reports, the MERCI base can be used for anything....it just depends on personal preference.

code_blue81

[hageremtp]

I am not sure, dont have time right now, but will look later at work. I was thinking the KKK has in it about radios being in ambulances. Anyone else know off hand? State of ND also requires radios in all units, they must have at least 5 channels in them. 2 for the state wide communications system, 1 for state EMS, 1 for state fire, and one for mutial aid. The rest are up to each service.

[Weruj1]

As far as requierments go I dont think that municipalties have to have them but any private units I do believe have to as noted by the OALB (Ohio Ambulance Liscensing Board). I happen to work at the regional Comm Center and we have a total of 8 hopitals that use the UHF Med Channels. We patch them together for units from a 3 county radius. We record all radio and phone traffic. Some ER's have their own private line just for cell phones but essentially if you want it on tape you need to go through us.We have the HEAR here but that again was not recorded and went by the wayside.

[smurfe]

We to have the 800 MHz trunking system with dedicated channel for each hospital. We also have phone patch capabilities where our system can connect to a phone line thru dispatch. For back up our system has an EMS backup channel and a hospital back up channel which is a shared freq. all the hospitals use which is just a straight channel around the repeater, as another back up, we still have our UHF 400 MHz "Med- Radios" We do not have cell phones in the units. We do have a phone patch # we can dial from a telephone such as in a patients residence. We have all these channels on our portable radios as well as unit radios. We actually have so many channels that I get confused at times. There are at least 50 on there to utilize.

Smurfe:D

[ALS142]

It's a toss-up where I work. Some people use the radio exclusively, some use cell phones. Personally, I vary back and forth but I seem to be using the cell phone more and more lately. The flow of conversation between myself and the MD is better since he/she doesn't have to wait for me to break transmission so that they can talk.

[smurfe]

Originally posted by twocuts we have an 800mhz trunking system and each hospital has a base station with a unique channel. As a backup we will use a phone... Me too!

Damn Big J, I didn't realize just how hard you worked for them 100 posts ha ha ha ha ha ha ha , just yanking your crank man LOL


Smurfe:D

[42VTExplorer]

In the new england area, I believe all hospitals operate on the same frequency so that you dont need 10 different hospital channels. I know that most if not all ambulances here in Vermont have radios and cellphones. =)

[Dushore5741]

We thought about buying cell phones for both ambulances, and an extra for the rescue... But, from using my own cell phone, I figured it would be helpful to us in less than 10% of our call volume. We are the only service in our county with HEAR system capabilties, which we use for unit-to-unit communications. We also have the UHF MEd Radios w/ Meds 1-12... And have 4 different PL's... 3 local hospitals. and the "ROAMING" feature. We frequently do red blanket transports to and from other states, so we want to be sure that if we are transporting to the "Nun Home" in Emmittsburg, Ma.. That we can take our patient to a hospital in that area if an emergency arises. We have a "problem" hospital in the area. They have an emergency room, if you can even call it one... But no radio's... They are in a valley, no cell phone service, and THEY ARE REALLY MEAN when you come w/ out letting them know. But nobody answers the phone when you call... I usually stop at a fire station about 4 miles away and call from the pay phone. At least we attempt to make contact... eh?

[ALS142]

Dushore,

That sounds rough. Personnally, I use my own cellphone for most of my cell phone notifications/consultations. Then I write off the cost on my taxes.

As for that one problem hospital, I once came into a local ED without having told them of my pending arrival with a critical patient. When the nurse snapped at me as to why I didn't call, I answered, in front of the Director of Nursing luckily, "Why didn't you answer the phone or radio the four times I called ?". Since that day, I have never had to let the phone ring more than three times or call more than twice on the radio.

[backdraft663]

We have both, we can contact them via radio, or phone, the thing is getting a hold of someone, we usually have troubles contacting them, now when using the phone the hospital now has an automated number, i think it not right, you should be able to just dial the number and talk to someone instead of dialing a number then listening and dialing more. I think our hospital could do a little better with answering us, they never know half the time whats coming through the door, well I know its like that on the nights I observe (Fridays), i dont know if they have that problem other nights.