Both the EMS and Fire Industry bring with them their own unique challenges however at their core they have a similar foundation. Lets look at the 5 Tools that both EMS Agencies and Fire Departments should be using every day, why those tools are so important and the value those tools bring to the organization.
Online Scheduling:
Online Scheduling of EMT’s, Paramedics and Firefighters can save your agency thousands, if not tens-of-thousands, of dollars each year not only in Overtime management but also with the guarantee of qualified and certified staff members working the shifts. Most Online Scheduling programs these days offer employee validation features such as Certification Checks, Hour Checks, Rank Checks and more. When selecting a scheduling tool for your EMS or Fire Department be sure it can easily handle the following tasks:
- Building and managing complex patterns
- Easily suggest shift replacements based on hourly rate, hours worked, employee rank, seniority and more
- Automation features such as Auto Bidding and Self-Scheduling
- Ability to configure work rules
- Ability to handle various event notifications such as Time Off, Shift Trade, Shift Bid, Time Clock late reasons and more
- Sync employee schedules to third party calendars such as Google, Yahoo, Outlook, Apple, etc
- Track student riders or third party riders
- Easy to use interface which makes filling, re-assigning and adding staff to the schedule roster quick and easy
Online Learning Management System:
EMS and Fire Departments have to ensure their staff members are fully certified, knowledgeable and kept up to date with today’s hot educational topics. Without an integrated Learning Management System (LMS) you will find many inefficiencies, which lead to lost time, frustration and lack of morale amongst your staff. When selecting an LMS for your agency ensure the following:
- Integrated Certification Tracking: Ensure the certification tracking system fully integrates with the scheduling tool you have selected. This will save you the fines from putting an employee on the shift with expired certifications
- Classroom Education Tracking: Track an employee’s CEU or Continued Education Units/Hours quickly and easily. Be sure that an employee’s training time can easily be exported to their time card for payroll processing. This level of integration makes managing training time a snap
- Online Education/Training: Every department today should be offering an online training solution to their staff members. Online Training can be used in a number of ways from evaluating an employee's knowledge on a skill, gauging an employee's understanding of a policy or providing information on the proper and safe use of equipment. Online Training will save your department money and time since employees can take the training from their wirelessly enabled laptops, cell phones, work or home computers and will not need to come into the office to receive the training
- Quality Assurance: Easily create a custom QA program to meet your department's needs. Create custom notifications, QA Types such as medical reviews, cardiac reviews, ALS Run Review or anything else your department might need
- Skill Testing: Ensure your staff members know the practical steps in order to perform their required skills. With an integrated skills testing system you can easily evaluate your staff members, get valuable feedback on missed skills and plan and develop online or classroom training to resolve commonly missed steps/protocols
Online Incident Reports:
Incident Reports are vital to any department. Choosing the right one can be a vital decision, as all Incident Reporting systems are not created equal. Incident Reporting systems are great for allowing your staff members to complete online forms or questionnaires regarding various topics such as vehicle service requests, patient complaints, trip issues, vehicle collisions, personal information changes and many others. When selecting an online incident reporting system be sure to look for the following:
- Custom Forms, Fields and Answers: The ability to create a fully customized form means little restrictions in your ability to create what is needed for your department
- Real Signatures: With the ability for your staff to provide a real hand-written signature you will now be in compliance with various federal agencies requirements
- Workflow-Routing: Ensure the system can easily route the Incident Report on it’s own to the correct manager or set of managers based on information provided within the Incident Report
- Sub-Tasks: Nearly every incident report that is created will require someone else to provide a helping hand. Perhaps it’s the HR team, shift supervisor or training department. With sub-tasks you can easily request another manager/supervisor to perform an action and after that action has been completed be able to review outcomes and ultimately close the incident report
- Loop Closure: Any system you choose should notify the original employee that their incident report has been closed/completed by management. This simple loop-closure process will increase staff moral, nurture an environment where staff will voluntarily provide information to management and create a culture within your organization around respect
Inventory Management:
Whether you're tracking soft supplies, fire hoses, helmets, stretchers or very expensive cardiac monitors, an online inventory management system specifically designed for EMS and Fire Departments is vital. With the right system you should see a decline in expired medications, reduction in supply hoarding by your staff and full accountability of where supplies are going. When selecting an online inventory system for your EMS or Fire Department consider the following:
- Expiration Date Tracking: In order to get a handle on your wasted items it’s important to track expiration dates. Stay informed through notifications and easy to read dashboards
- Bar Code Integration: Reduce your data entry errors and speed up processing with the use of barcode SKU's
- Custom Labels: You have all different size supplies and equipment. Don’t settle for just one label format. Look for a system that allows you to create your own big or small labels
- Unlimited Depots/Store Rooms: Don’t be nickel and dimed. Go with an inventory system that offers unlimited supplies, unlimited vehicles and unlimited depots / store rooms
- Mobile Friendly: Chances are your primary storeroom is not is an air-conditioned office with carpeting and good lighting. A mobile inventory management system is key to work not only in your storerooms but also your vehicles
- Purchase Order Integration: Look for the ability to create purchase orders for supplies you need from your preferred vendors
- Staff Supply Ordering: If your department is like most then you have a few stations besides the station where your primary supply is located. Staff will need an easy and accountable way of ordering/requesting supplies
- Reports: Detailed reports relating to usage information, financial information and history/log information
Fleet Management:
Managing your fleet records is typically a chore that includes tracking service requests, service records, mileage and engine hour information along with other key information relating to the vehicle. A Fleet Management system that integrates into your online scheduling tool can help with taking vehicles in/out of service for repairs along with reduce confusion of an out-of-date whiteboard in the crew-room. A proper fleet management system should have the following:
- Ability to create a vehicle service request
- Ability to track key information about each vehicle such as VIN, vehicle number/ID, preventative maintenance intervals, Registration, Inspection and License Expirations
- Ability to track vehicle mileage history
- Ability to perform daily vehicle check sheets and record deficiencies
- Ability to track service records, dollars spent, labor utilized and more
Bonus Tool
Tracking information about your staff members within a fully integrated system is the foundation to a proper workforce management tool. When evaluating a personnel management system be sure to look for the following:
- Tracking detailed employee profiles including photos
- Tracking of staff Emergency Contacts
- Tracking of staff Medical Information such as Allergies, Immunizations and more
- Custom Profile Data Fields to meet your departments unique needs
- HR fields such as hire date, termination date, address, phone, email, fingerprints, etc
- Payroll fields such as pay rates, maximum work hours per week/month, default earning codes and more
- Equipment Tracking: Whenever you provide uniforms, radios or other equipment to your staff members be sure to track it. This will reduce your lost or misplaced equipment
- Employee Document storing
- Employee Notes and comments
VAIRKKO offers a fully integrated workforce management system which includes everything within this article and much more to meet the demands of today's EMS and Fire Departments. For more information or to request a free product demonstration please contact 888-290-0671