Houston Fire Department Recognized for Agency and Department Leadership

The Houston Fire Department is a 2017 Route Fifty Navigator Award finalist in the category of Agency and Department Leadership for work with the ETHAN Project.

Here is a portion of the announcement from Cisco News:

“The Houston Fire Department took an innovative approach, partnering with Cisco and Panasonic to develop the Emergency TeleHealth and Navigation solution, called ETHAN. It’s a tablet-based mobile solution that uses advanced telepresence and data-sharing technologies, to empower emergency staff and citizens to coordinate out-of-hospital care and eliminate unnecessary and costly ambulance rides.”

“Dr. Michael Gonzalez is the fire department’s associate medical director and led an important effort to change citizen behavior when it comes to calling for help: Too many citizens call 9-1-1 to receive routine or law-acuity health care—like getting a ride to local hospital—when they could seek assistance through non-emergency means. 9-1-1 response doesn’t come cheap, and in Houston, protocol dictates that the city send a firetruck and, in some cases, an ambulance to every call. That can divert city resources when they’re needed for the most critical cases.

The department took an innovative approach, partnering with Cisco and Panasonic to develop the Emergency TeleHealth and Navigation solution, called ETHAN. It’s a tablet-based mobile solution that uses advanced telepresence and data-sharing technologies, to empower emergency staff and citizens to coordinate out-of-hospital care and eliminate unnecessary and costly ambulance rides.

Gonzales and his team at the department, using ETHAN, wanted to reduce the number of unnecessary ambulance transports for low-acuity patients; improve internal efficiencies in responding to 9-1-1 calls; and improve communications and collaboration among Houston’s health care providers.

The results? The total time from evaluation to transport has been as low as 33 minutes; unnecessary hospital transports via ambulance are avoided in 80 percent of patients who call; costs to patients are reduced from as much as $2,200 to just $220; giving patients more choice; and better managing patient wait times in emergency rooms.

The work is impressive and Route Fifty is pleased to name Gonzalez as one of our 10 finalists in the Agency and Department Leadership category.” — Cisco News