Ambulances need doctoring

When the Bloomington Hospital Ambulance Service needed to update their vehicles, the Leadership Bloomington-Monroe County class stepped forward to help. The class secured laptops so the vehicles would have better navigation.\nThe service’s ambulances are out-of-date, said Maureen Gahan, one of six students involved in the class. \n“BHAS provides amazing service and still uses the same resources they had 20 years ago,” she said. \nThe class wanted to install new mapping systems in the ambulances to help the drivers locate those who need their assistance more quickly.\nCurrently, the service uses maps and map books they put together. However, this dated method proves to be a problem because maps change and can sometimes take months to update, said Bloomington Hospital Ambulance Service Director David DeGroote.\nDeGroote said the service has been trying for several years to install mapping systems in its ambulances to replace the map books. \nOriginally, Gahan said, the group wanted to get the hospital new ambulances but realized it was beyond its capabilities. \nThe year-long leadership class, offered through the School of Continuing Studies, chose to help the ambulance service as part of its community project. The class chose the ambulance service because one of the students in the class, Faron Lake, is a member of the Bloomington Police Department and knew DeGroote and the service’s struggles. \nLake said the project has two parts. The first is a public relations campaign to educate the community about the ambulance service. The second, which has already been achieved, was to find a technology grant to fund laptops and the new mapping system. A major corporation in Monroe County, which wanted to remain anonymous, will donate 21 laptops. Every time the corporation updates its laptops, it will give the old laptops to the ambulance service. The new system involves laptop computers that have specific mapping software installed.\n“When our units are dispatched, our crews would get into the ambulance and type in an address and a map would show up and they could pick their route easily,” DeGroote said. \nDeGroote said the ambulance service has not been able to get this system because of the cost of the laptops. \nThe software is updated on a regular basis. This system would benefit the community because ambulances would be able to get to places more efficiently, DeGroote said. \nWhen determining the best way to obtain the new mapping service, the class had to find a way to not put more of a financial burden on the hospital, Lake said. The ambulance service does not receive local tax money. Monroe County provides $120,000 annually to fund the ambulance service and IU provides $25,000. However, because the service has a $3 million annual budget, the hospital must provide the rest of the funding.\nLake said he thinks the reason the service has just now received help is because of a time problem. The service didn’t have someone who had the time to do all the research. That is where the leadership class came in. \nLake said the first set of laptops are scheduled to arrive in mid- to late summer. He said the group will meet around this time to follow-up with the project’s progress.