.pdf version of this customer profile (129 KB .pdf)

Client:

The Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency protects Charlotte and the surrounding county of Mecklenburg, N.C., home to two of the nation's largest banks, nine Fortune 500 companies, and nearly 750,000 citizens. The agency, popularly known as Medic, is the busiest EMS organization in North and South Carolina; it answers more than 70,000 requests for medical assistance annually. Medical 911 calls are routed from the primary public safety answering point at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Deparment to Medic's communications center, which the agency operates itself. This center receives as many as 300 calls during in a 24-hour period.

Challenge:

Rapid population growth brought call volume to a point that required an upgrade of the underlying hardware on which the agency was running TriTech's VisiCAD Command Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system. Medic's requirements included a reliable Windows^® server platform that would deliver the additional capacity, complement the TriTech software, and safeguard system uptime, all while upholding the agency's mandate to fulfill high standards of performance and observe established financial controls.

Solution:

After consulting other CAD users to learn about approaches that had proven successful at public safety agencies elsewhere, Medic selected a Stratus server with TriTech's software. Stratus' advanced technology made it practical and affordable to replace the agency's two-server cluster with a single fault-tolerant system. In this way, the agency eliminated the possibility of failover and avoided the ongoing administration needed to ensure a multi-server cluster is properly configured for high availability.

Result:

The excellent reliability and operational efficiency help free up time for Medic's IT staff. They have been able to turn their attention to other strategic projects, such as custom development of a mobile data system that works seamlessly with the CAD system. The mobile data system trims crucial seconds from average response time by using an automated vehicle locator (AVL) to track units, global positioning satellite (GPS) technology to route those vehicles, and mobile status terminals that provide call details and a map displaying the fastest route to the scene.